Blessings To Curses
by MistakesMeant
Summary: Rapunzel's life had just begun to come together when everything fell apart. Mother Gothel is dead, her age consuming her life before she can get to Rapunzel, Eugene is awaiting his death in jail, and Rapunzel is left to the Stabbington Brothers, who intend on making a profit from more than just her hair. When Eugene breaks free will Rapunzel be saved or left to live with her curse?
1. Chapter 1

In her mind, she repeated what he had said. 'I'll be right back. I'll be right back. I'll be right back.' She trusted Eugene Fitzherbert with all her heart. So she would trust those words.

In her heart however, worry spread like a poison through her insides. It twisted every organ within her and made the need to run and convulse more apparent and alive than her need to leave her tower to see the floating lights. Rapunzel tried with all her might to force that feeling away. But she couldn't ignore it. The silence of the night was too noticeable, the air too pregnant with her own worry and tension that the thoughts flooded her mind without restraint. _He's left you. You're all alone. Mother was right. All he wanted was the crown. It was all a lie. _She had to forcefully remind herself that she trusted him. She had to loudly yell over herself that he had told her he had to take care of something. That couldn't just happen in a few seconds; it would take a little while. She needed to wait.

Rapunzel began to deep, calming breaths, attempting to pass them off as sighs so Pascal would not worry more than he already was. When Eugene left, Pascal had expressed his anxiety and disapproval but she had been the trust to calm him down. She needed to remain that way.

During her time in the tower, Rapunzel had learned from her varied collection of books many things. One of those things was that a pattern seemed to run through all the characters just before the climax. The main character would make some big mistake and most times it was the character taking matters into their own hands. It had happened in so many of the novels she'd delved wholeheartedly into that she would make up whole other endings for them and write them down in her own books, creating a fantasy away from the tragedy. She much preferred that to having to settle with death or broken hearts. But, she wondered, could she do that to herself?

Her heart pounded ferociously in her chest. What if he did leave her alone forever? She couldn't just rewrite the ending! When her mind began to piece together the fact that her ending may be that tower again, her throat grew tight. Of all the things she had seen in these past few days, of all the friends and food and variety and adventure and sun and earth, could she ever return to those detestable walls knowing what she was missing? Could she sit quietly and watch the floating lanterns knowing that even if she stretched herself as far as her body would allow out of that window, the experience would never be the same? If she ever saw those lights again, her heart would break. Seeing them in the sky would never compare to seeing them all around her. It would never compare to being enveloped in a warmth both outside of her and inside. The lights, the excitement, the love… She could never give that up. But, she thought sadly, she would have to if he decided to leave her.

Rapunzel's hand stroked the boat's wood, soaking in the feel of that memory. As her hands ran over the red velvet seats, she felt herself welling up sorrowfully within. Her heart was already shielding itself for betrayal. Her arms wound tightly around the wood, her body leaning dependently against it as if she would fall from her place when he wouldn't return.

Something caught her eye. Instinctively, she gazed up before her, at the very spot where Eugene had left and she became elated at the sight of his figure approaching in the mist. Suddenly she realized that her preceding thoughts were frivolous and unkind. She should never have lost faith in him. Of course he would come back.

She sighed in relief, swiping back the hair that had fallen into her face while she lost herself in thought. "I was starting to think you ran off with the crown and left me." She smiled widely and briefly glanced away in embarrassment. At her shoulder, Pascal sighed happily as well. Her grin deepened.

As Eugene walked towards her, she noticed something strange. His body was larger, bulkier as if he was wearing something that widened his figure at an unnatural angle, and he was taller. Her eyes flashed to his feet, noticing that he was not standing on any stilts or wearing any new boots that could prove to his advantage. Another shape, identical to the one who was supposed to be Eugene appeared from behind the first man. Confused, Rapunzel furrowed her brows and released the wood from her grip, taking a minute step back.

Their boots crunched again the rocks as they walked towards her in a harsh and commanding manner only stopping a short distance from her to smugly reply, "He did."

Rapunzel's eyes raked over the men. She reluctantly noted their large demeanor, both tall and herculean, guised in garments similar to those of them ruffians and thugs she had befriended within the Snuggly Duckling. However she could tell that these men had no intention of becoming a loved one of hers. Their hair color was a crimson red, shortly trimmed and growing down as sideburns on one as the other one kept it neatly above his ears. Adorning the back of the one who spoke was a sheathed sword, a wide grin playing across his features. The other with no sideburns looked far graver, a grim expression on his face along with an eye patch and a scar deep beneath his eye.

"What," she asked sharply. Her anger flared. "No! He wouldn't." Her voice came out strongly. It was a pleasant surprise.

The man with the sideburns gestured out to the lake right of him. "See for yourself."

Her eyes followed the movement all the way out onto the cerulean lake. From her spot she could just barely make out the shape of something large and black gliding across the lake's surface. She squinted her eyes in disbelief, Pascal whimpering beside her as she rushed forward to the shoreline and took in a better image of the object. When she moved it had become strikingly obvious that that object was a ship, too small for any royal endeavors but just right enough in size to be manned by one person. When she squinted her eyes further, she murmured, "Eugene?" The fog began to lift and her eyes recognized the distinct outline of Eugene's body manning the wheel, satchel at his side. There was no mistaking it this time. The image burned so clearly in her eyes that she couldn't control the cry that broke from within her, "Eugene!"

Her throat closed up as she watched him remain on his course, directly away from her without even turning so much as in her direction. _No_, her mind begged.

"Fair trade," the man hoarsely avowed, immediately breaking her from her reverie. The two stepped behind her, the man with the sideburns lightly brushing his hand against her heavy braid. She became rigid. "A crown… for the girl with the magic hair."

Rapunzel felt her heart thunder in her chest. She swiveled around and gasped. Her eyes just seemed to be registering the two frightening men. _No_. She screamed at herself from within that mother had warned her of this!

The man reached behind his back. "How much do you think someone would pay to stay young and healthy forever?" Something white appeared at his side.

Rapunzel lifted her hands protectively and helplessly mumbled, "No." His smile vanished and he stormed towards her, the white bag in hand. "Please! _No._" Rapunzel scrambled away from them, scooting quickly around the silent and dangerous looking one. "No!" Hurriedly, she dashed away, heart slamming in her chest as everything blurred by. In her haste, her feet caught on her dress. Frantically she gathered the garment in her hands and dashed forward, the two men following closely in pursuit. Rapunzel desperately pushed on her heels to hurry forward through the same exit Eugene had minutes earlier disappeared into. When she entered it, she hastily hopped over and off of various obstacles, knowing full well that she was being funneled against her advantage through the two large rocks.

The men made a grab at her, one grunting when he missed her but she knew she had only narrowly avoided it and was completely petrified at the thought. It only made her rush faster. She flew over a log, barely noticing its presence until she felt a snag against her scalp and loudly whimpered. Rapunzel clumsily clutched at her hair, yanking the heavy braid and screaming desperately when it wouldn't budge. "Ah! NO!"

Clutching at her from her knees, the man with the eye patch yanked her up from the ground and, despite her cries, threw her over his shoulder, nearly pulling hair from her scalp in the process. The other, who gathered himself from the ground with a scratch on his lip made by the fall, jerked her hair free and made his way over to them. Using all her might, Rapunzel thrashed against the man, banging her suddenly feeble hands against his thickly muscled back. Unfazed by her actions, the man lifted her by her waist and turned her to his brother. While in the air, Rapunzel sent a foot flying at the man's face and when it connected, she fell to the ground, crying out in pain as her body landed on the hard, damp rocks.

"Bitch!" He grunted. Against the floor, she scrambled, her bare feet shoving against the rocks. She only made it one foot forward before the man grasped her ankle and wrenched her roughly backwards. Head banging sharply on one of the rocks, Rapunzel gasped and felt tears spring up in her eyes as a burning sensation ignited in her scalp.

"_No_, please!" She cried as the man with the eye patch violently raised her up and dropped her into the thin white bag held by his brother. "Please!" she wailed, clutching at the cloth around her and trying desperately to find some sort of footing that would assist her in making it out of the hole at its top. Unfortunately her own hair prevented her from getting very far as it tangled itself around her feet and caught on her ankles when she finally found the footing she was looking for. Looking towards the lantern filled sky, Rapunzel solemnly watched as it disappeared, only to be replaced with the filthy white bag surrounding her.

She screamed out, hoping someone would hear her but the cheering and music of the kingdom along with the laughter from her captors overpowered her voice and she was stuck. The throbbing at her scalp had only increased with the high powered holler she let out. Along the side of her face, Rapunzel could feel a warm liquid oozing and almost certainly knew it was blood. Even before its crimson red shade stained the side of the bag. When the throbbing began to increase to an intensity that allowed her only a choice of sanity or consciousness, Rapunzel reluctantly let her eyelids droop, closing off any the sight of the blood and tears around her. Her heart beat at a slow pace, becoming numb to the fear that moments ago ran rampant through her veins with adrenaline as its companion. A black shade pulled over her body as her final thoughts fell from her mind. Rapunzel was glad to let them slip away, unwilling to recognize that one of them had been to Eugene, pleading for him to swoop in and save her like she would dream he would.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey there! Well I would just like to say thanks for reading my story and please review! By the way, this will not necessarily be a happy tale. So don't be surprised if you read some stuff, you wouldn't like (or stuff you would like c;)! Well, slight smut warning. Here's my latest chapter!**

Pain greeted Rapunzel when she slipped fully into consciousness. Although she had woken up and fallen asleep several times, she had never truly noted what ailed her and caused her such discomfort during her dreams. As she sat up however, she couldn't help but notice something odd about the feel of her blankets and that no matter how much she pawed against them, they would not release her to unfiltered sunlight and cool air. Snapping her eyes open, cloth streaked with red met her vision and reality pounded into her, roughly jerking her heart to its vicious will. "No," she mumbled, gathering the rough fabric into her hands. "No!" she grunted, pulling the two handfuls away from each other in an attempt to make them tear. Despite this, she recognized the stitching that had gone into making this bag and knew that it was made with the intention of preventing any of the heavy material inside from tearing any seams.

Suddenly a gasp escaped her as she was struck by a sharp pain, emanating from her torso. Patiently, Rapunzel waited until it finally ebbed to a light throb, her hands pulling away from the bag and lightly probing along her sides, pressing down in various places and earning gasps from the most of them. A grief settled over her as she finished her research that this was a problem. How could she escape if she could hardly lift her own arms? She snapped at herself. _No, the question you should really be thinking about is how you're even going to escape in the first place._ Unfortunately, she had no plan for that.

As her mind raced, only blank and meaningless thoughts met her. Thoughts mostly revolving around the person she'd unwilling let into her heart. The same person who'd taken the trust he'd earned and betrayed her. The same person who'd almost kissed her…

Taking a deep breath of the hot, stale air that had been circulating within this bag since her capture, Rapunzel attempted to steady herself. If there was anything she needed to be doing right now, it was definitely _not_ to be having incessant thoughts about _him_. Her heart however firmly disagreed with her head – much like it did with most things in her short eighteen years of life – and decided to take its own course of action in influencing her. Every single moment she wasn't going to think of _him_, she would feel him. The messaged her mind received was not a surprise. This was not some spontaneous rebellion going on inside of her, nor was it in any case a guerilla tactic. From the moment Rapunzel had spotted his avaricious form sailing away from her, crown in hand, she'd been plagued with nothing but negative emotions. A habit that, she was beginning to fear, would not be broken any time soon.

Intending to focus her attention elsewhere, Rapunzel began to do what she was had meant to do after she woke up. She searched for wounds. A short amount of time passed before she had discovered a variety of things wrong with her. Most of her waist was sore, back included from the awkward position she slept in. One of her ankles was tremendously bruised, purple and red blotches formed in the unsurprising shape of a hand print. Her head was a no-brainer, and although she could see no outer inflections of the physical pain that plagued her heels, soreness definitely resided in both of her feet. It was like she had jumped up and down too long and too hard or maybe walked miles on end without rest. Her exertions with _him_ around the castle were probably to blame for that. Bitterly, Rapunzel added on that he was causing her a lot of trouble lately.

As the Stabbington brothers were brought to the forefront of her mind – considering they had never really left it – Rapunzel wondered where she currently was. No one was carrying her like before. Beneath her legs, the hard ground was very present and from what she could hear, no one was around. Sunlight poured in through the tiny holes of her bag, separated by the shadows of trees that rustled in the occasional wind around her. It was obvious that she was outside, but _where_? Rolling inside the bag, Rapunzel got onto her knees and tried to peer through the thick stitching of the bag. Her vision of outside was provided in tiny dots, but she could just barely make out an abundance of lush green trees around her. Grass and bushes surrounded her, but no people. Her heart raced.

No way. No way, no way, no way. They couldn't have just left her alone! Rapunzel's head snapped around in disbelief as she thought about her escape as something actually possible now. Sure, inside of a bag, she really couldn't get far but her voice would carry and her legs, as impossibly tangled as they were, could move some. Deciding was very simple, her heart and her head both giving their approval to make her move as soon as possible. She would not belong to someone else. She would _never_ allow herself to belong to someone else. Now that she knew what being used felt like, she did not intend on experiencing such pleasure again.

_It's now or never_, Rapunzel anxiously thought, taking one last skim of the area around her. She knew the Stabbington brothers weren't stupid but how smart could they be?

Rapunzel made her move. Through the thick exterior of the bag, her own braided hair, and her aching body giving its protests, Rapunzel understood that her thoughts were far more optimistic than reality was. But she carried on nonetheless, making it a short five feet from her spot into a bush, heavily panting and grasping her sides as if it would alleviate some of the pain. Being unable to see wasn't assisting her at all either.

Regardless of the pain, Rapunzel continued forward. Unable to imagine a fate worse than being sold by people as cold, careless, and frightening as the Stabbington brothers, she ignored the loud cries of pain that blared from her muscles. She even ignored the rare whimpers that broke from her lips when she felt too close to the verge of tears from her own fear or when she simply used her ankle wrong. At least ten minutes of clueless wandering must have gone by where she hit over a dozen things before she decided to yell out for help. Figuring she was far enough, Rapunzel wailed out at the top of her lungs for someone to help her. In the woods, the likelihood of that happening was minimal but it was worth a try. By her third try, a headache blossomed to its fullest power along with a sore throat caused by her vast amount of screaming.

Silence greeted her for a few more moments before she decided to let out another loud holler. About halfway through her help, a noise stopped her dead in her tracks. It was the clear and obvious sound of a person sprinting towards her. Clawing at the bag, she stretched it only barely apart, opening the holes enough for her to make out a massive being making their way over. "Help," she desperately cried, scuffling around inside of the bag and noisily dragging her hands across the fabric. "Please, please!" Her voice held a certain tone to it, a mix of insurmountable relief and fierce desperation. She happily breathed out again, "help" as the person grabbed of fist full of the bag and tore a knife through, breaking an opening for her. Cool air greeted her and without a second thought, she leapt out through it, too overcome with narrowly missing being sold to a stranger to even truly notice the excruciating pain that sliced through her at the rapid movement. "Thank y—"

A ragged breath broke itself from her throat, burning its way out of her. The feeling oddly resembled choking, but what could she choke on save the suddenly encaging air around her. Her eyes locked for a brief moment with that of the dangerous, eye patch wearing Stabbington brother. Terror sliced through her blind and cold, dicing her to pieces before she could even think to run from the sadistic, grim-faced man. Seconds before Rapunzel could even bend around to charge in the opposite direction, the man had her in grasp, yanking her backwards toward him with his large, calloused hands.

Her back landed with a thud against his chest, pain radiating like knives through her body, tearing pained moans from her throat. "Trying to sneak away?" He sneered from behind her. The Stabbington brother adjusted his hands on her upper arms and roughly twirled her around to face him. If it weren't for how quickly everything happened, Rapunzel would have started crying with fearful anticipation. Where his mouth should have gone, a twisted smirk resided and in his eye she could see her own painful future awaiting her.

"Let go of me," she demanded. To her everlasting dismay, her voice came out weak – almost a mumble – hardly sufficient to instill fear in anyone, much less this warrior-like being.

The smirk deepened as he said, "Sure" and then proceeded into shoving Rapunzel away from him. Whether or not it was intentional – and Rapunzel was almost certain it was – her body was suddenly colliding with the rough bark of a tree, the pain increasing to nearly indescribable levels of agony. Whimpers escaped her lips as tears escaped her eyes when she fell in a heap onto the floor. Her cheek felt utterly marred, the bark had torn away the flesh when she fell and left blood in its place. There wasn't much time to think about it though. By the time Rapunzel had begun to gather herself from the ground, the brother had already fisted a hand tightly in her golden locks, using it as a way to lift her from the floor.

Screams erupted from her. On instinct, her hands flew to the brother's wrist, clawing at it, pulling at it, anything she could to get it away from her head. But he stubbornly remained invincible to her attacks, the man bringing her fully to her feet and – with much protest – roughly slamming her body into the tree once again. Hysterically, Rapunzel sobbed. "Please," she screamed and then repeated almost insanely, "Please! Please! Please!" The words barely made sense anymore, caught between snot, hiccups, and tears.

Behind her, the brother pressed his body flush against her, his hot breath burning in her ear. "_This_," he jerked her hair for emphasis, earning another loud cry, "is what you get!" She shuddered against him, inhaling deeply to help alleviate the aching in her lungs. With her current position, she found it hard to breathe.

"You can't do this," she mumbled defiantly. A short bark of laughter felt through hot air that fanned against her neck was his immediate response. The man pulled her head back and turned her head to face him.

"Oh, I can't?" He hollered at her. Pride trying so hard to remain intact, Rapunzel barely suppressed a cringe of fear. "You are _mine_!" At her waist, she felt a hand clutch at her, balling the dirtied dress into its palm.

More tears went through her now, the awkward position of her neck and the sad fact that she was so close to an escape that was now so unlikely breaking her like a dam. If she couldn't fight back, she'd at least keep her resistance. "I belong to no one!"

His face ignited like lightning to trees. Wildfire scorched in his visible eye. She could see the vengeance there as cold and real as bloody murder. "YOU BELONG TO ME!" No pride could be reserved for the terrified cries she made and the horrible cringes she did at his voice. How could she have fought against it though? At this point, he'd surpassed the point of human. "You will pay," he growled in a voice equally as terrifying but only a whisper. The hand at her side turned into a claw, taking the bunched up fabric and tearing it away. The seams sang painfully into the air, met along with her own petrified voice. Rapunzel was confused by his actions. She had no idea where they would take her or if it was as bad as death but there was no way it'd be to something pleasant. So she screamed in fear and yelled for help. Even if she was clueless as to the next step.

As the cloth hit the floor, the brother's hand disappeared into the new found hole, running over the thin material of her underdress. Ice prickled her skin while his fingertips leisurely drifted over the dress covering her stomach. He paused for a moment or two in that area and then began to pull the fabric up quickly, his hand slipping underneath it when he met the hem. Suddenly Rapunzel knew. She understood completely as his hand brushed the underside of her breast, felt fear paralyze her like an ice sculpture when he grasped the smooth skin in his hard palm. A gasp escaped from her unexpectedly silent lips. This was not a turn she was expecting him to take. Never in all of her life had she even thought of this as a possibility. But there she was, being ground into the hand of fiend.

The ice shattered.

Rapunzel woke from her daze and began to thrash against his body, weakly moving her legs and arms to their best ability and ignoring the protests of pain that her body presented to her. The brother didn't seem fazed. The only acknowledgement he gave towards her actions was to press her more firmly against the tree, a movement that was surprisingly more effective than what Rapunzel had been doing. Her head slipped forward in the conjured up will to purity, no longer bent towards the sky but still caught in the hands of the horrible man behind her. She could feel the fight evaporate with her energy. But as he pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, Rapunzel resumed her squirming against him.

In all of her haste, Rapunzel was unable to realize however that she was only encaging herself further between the man and the tree. While jerking her legs, they had separated and now the space that filled them was the brother's leg. When she had twisted her torso to get it out of his grasp, she'd only arched her back to where her butt was firmly pressed against his groin and his hand had better access than before. By the time she came to comprehend this though, she was motionless and pinned, the brother still groping her breast from beneath her tight bodice.

As he continued with his ministrations, Rapunzel reluctantly felt a pleasure blooming like a flower in her stomach. The warmth of his hand and body became hard to ignore in the sunlight and her body dampened itself with sweat, a different moisture collecting between her legs. In her ear, heavy and hot breaths fanned out, warming the skin of neck. Back in her home, Rapunzel had hardly ever touched her breasts. The reaction she got was barely there and when it was, it left her craving and insatiable. She knew what she wanted but she couldn't truly conceive what. In this moment, she suddenly _knew_ what. But Rapunzel didn't want this. Never in her life could she want this, especially from someone like him. That thought didn't stop the throaty moan that had clawed its way up past her lips.

Chuckles boomed into her ear as something grew against her butt. It was like an odd stick placed wrong that she wanted to shy away from. But her choices were limited, and she was stuck with it squeezed against her cheeks. "Oh," he laughed loudly and then brought his hand away from her breast. "Look who likes it now!" The hand gradually moved lower, the coarse skin of his hand lightly brushing against the smooth and untouched skin of her stomach.

"Please," she pleaded again, quietly with a shame so great that she had to scrunch her eyes and look at the floor. "Please…"

"Payback," he mumbled heavily against the skin of her neck, his lips grazing over the soft and visible flesh there. Hand venturing down and – upon reaching its destination – cupping her most intimate area, the dry skin suddenly became wet and intolerably pleasurable. Rapunzel moaned through gritted teeth, her body flexing against the brother's groin. He groaned in pleasure as his middle finger ran along her open slit, creating a friction that Rapunzel craved with a force that was able to alter her perception. "Look who's so wet." Along her neck, his tongue lapped at her skin.

Teary eyed, Rapunzel muttered, "No…" The Stabbington brother rubbed his thumb against her clit while his middle finger teasingly threatened entrance into a place that only she had ever touched. Moaning through her mortification, Rapunzel's body moved on its own will, against the sanity of her tortured mind, pressing to greet the taunting fingers. The brother plucked at her wet entrance and then unexpectedly jammed his finger inside of her up to the tip of his knuckles. He repeated the action, slowing working up to a rhythm inside of her that kept her squirming for entirely different reasons. _No_, Rapunzel's mind pleaded. She tried forcing the sensation away, tried ignoring the hot and cold chills that danced across her skin, but it was like ignoring fire in a desert of snow. The way his hand pumped against her core, the electric feel that accompanied every touch was all horribly wonderful. Something was winding itself deep in her stomach, and only when he added another large digit did she feel like she was getting near to comfort.

Her mind worked against the pleasure though. Rapunzel tried focusing on other things that only momentarily were able to distract her, if at all. Grass and weeds that tickled at her bare feet and ankles. Sunlight that poured through the thick canopy of trees and cast shadows and warmth over her chilled skin. Bird's voices filling the air as they flew by – happily free (accompanied by the grunts of the man and the barely retained gasps of Rapunzel). The weight of her braid against her sore scalp. As she the pumping increased, Rapunzel's eyes couldn't see anything anymore, clouded with lust and tears. "No," she moaned. "Oh God, no."

It was happening. The very thing she'd been working toward and against was unfurling, lashing out like a whip inside of her. Behind her the man was rubbing his member against her rear, but she could hardly feel it anymore. Whatever had been working inside of her was now released. Her body was beginning to convulse with bliss. Reaching out for something, Rapunzel's hands gripped at the trunk of the tree. She clutched at it when her body developed a mind of its own and physically rode out the waves of pleasure against his hand. Her moans surpassed her screams and seemed unstoppable. It tore her apart.

Rapunzel gasped as it ebbed away, feeling guilty, shamed, and horrible. The hate she felt towards, not only herself for giving in, but for the Stabbington brother behind her for bringing her to the brink was never ending. "No," she moaned again, her body becoming slack against the tree. If it weren't for the brother behind her, she would have fallen to the ground.

Almost as if by cue, the brother backed away from Rapunzel, hands completely removed, to her immense pleasure, from within and around her. Her legs, weak from humiliation and fear, refused to listen and simply let her fall, with only a weak attempt at the contrary. When her back rolled against the barely cushioned floor, she was reminded instantaneously of the sore pains in her body. The throbbing that welcomed her back motivated her to hoist herself up onto her elbows and then into a sitting position. As she moved though, the brother's voice rang in her ears.

"Ah, ah, ah," he scolded in a husky tone, shaking his head slowly. Kneeling down to her level, her gripped her chin – and some hair that had fallen out of her braid during their "foreplay" – and forced her eyes to meet his. "Now it's my turn," he snarled.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters. I'm purely here to write my version of their stories!**

**Hi, I just wanted to say that I'm going to try and update as often as I can and will probably update two times by Sunday because I will be going out of town and – most likely – will not have internet for at least a week. And I am SWAMPED with summer work. So, here it is I hope you enjoy it. And please review. Seeing reviews helps me to not only become inspired but lets me know I'm actually being read. Bye!**

**Need to know: God is involved her because I want to incorporate some truth of this time period into here and hello? It is very religious. Sorry if you don't like it. I'm not forcing you to read. **

Rapunzel's mind didn't make sense of it fast enough. By the time she had processed his meaning, she was already being forced to sit on her knees with his hand around her throat. Like before, her hands flew to his hand in an attempt to pry it off. Unlike before, the eye patch wearing brother was able to easily give her neck a squeeze and she would relent on the amount of aggression she put into her attack. "Please!" she screamed. Her tears cascaded down her cheeks, dripping onto his arm from her chin. "_Please_!"

With his free hand, the brother sharply struck her across the face. The sting gave an estimate as to how bad he really hurt her, but Rapunzel couldn't distinguish the pain of the slap from the pain of the slap on the cuts. "_Shut. UP_!"

Tightening his fatal grip, Rapunzel felt a growing pressure in her head. It was like being compressed inside of shrinking ball. A weird noise choked its way out of her that was meant to be more pleas for mercy. The brother grinned down at her maniacally. Had he realized this fact as well? Training her eyes on his free hand, Rapunzel watched as he hastily undid the black laces of his pants. It was obviously difficult for him for a number of reasons. One reason was probably because he was using one hand. Another reason was because he was in a rush. The last reason was because of the throbbing erection directed at Rapunzel's face that must have made his pants a tad too small. Through her overwhelming tears, she glared at it in both anger and horror. It was massive. During her time in the tower, she had never really read many erotic novels (save the few she found stealthily hidden beneath Mother Gothel's mattress). And during her time of being both in and out of the tower, Rapunzel hadn't even seen a _soft_ one. So what could she compare it to? What if that was _small_?

Rapunzel's mind raced back to Mother Gothel's stories of terrifying men. Maybe she'd been referring to these men here. Maybe she'd left out their sword-like limbs. It didn't matter now, Rapunzel realized. Whatever that was (and she knew _exactly_ what it was), no matter what it was in comparison to others, it was _huge_. Where did he expect to put it? Surely no possible part of her body could accommodate such a limb.

Triumphantly – to the brother – the laces were untied. Rapunzel tried to swallow her feelings but she could hardly inhale around the human noose at her neck. More tears.

Just as the brother reached inside of his pants, drawing Rapunzel nearer all the while, he yelled out at the top of his lungs, "Auric!" and froze. Confused, Rapunzel's eyes flickered upwards – away from her sheathed death. But when she saw that the man himself was staring at something else and hadn't said a word, her eyes drew over to that direction.

Standing by a tree, the other Stabbington brother glowered at, apparently, Auric who was bringing his groin dangerously close to Rapunzel's flushed face. He rolled his eyes, chewing on an apple and then tossed its half-eaten remains to the floor. (Rapunzel couldn't help but ask if they would do that to her one day too?)

"Get off," he shoved Auric away from Rapunzel, "the merchandise!"

Rapunzel broke free of his grip with a tortured gasp followed by a series of coughs.

The brother threw a punch at Auric that was swiftly dodged, "What the fuck is wrong with you! We talked about how we want to use her." The brother smirked and gestured Auric to come close, both brothers ignoring Rapunzel's fit of throaty coughs and sharp breaths. "People pay big money for virgins," he added in a horrible whisper. Auric's eyes flickered over to Rapunzel.

Inside of her chest, she felt her heart stop beating. What did he say? Each breath she drew in, fighting the now occasional coughs, was ragged and broken by some sort of sob. Rapunzel knew what he meant. It was obvious when Auric replied, "Oh, she'd still be a virgin if I had my way with her, just not as pure." The obviousness of his statement didn't stop her from rushing to numerous excuses of what that could also have to do with. It could mean that whoever bought her wanted her to be 'pure' like Auric had said. It could mean that they wanted someone innocent and almost naïve to outer life. They didn't convince her much.

The brothers disbanded from each other. Auric went over to gather the bag in his hands, tossing it as if he were expecting to find some way to salvage the mess he had made. The other Stabbington brother approached Rapunzel, looming over her in all green, scrutinizing her face.

"We're gonna need some other way to hold her."

The brother wearing all green snapped back to Auric, "Why?"

"Bitch wanted to escape. I let her out, and gave her a taste of impurity," he derided with an evil smirk. Although he was turned towards the bag, his eyes connected with Rapunzel. The gaze brought an icy chill that she instantly broke away from.

Bending towards her, the brother grasped her chin in his hands – in the exact same way Auric had just minutes earlier – and turned her face from cheek to cheek. "You couldn't do that without fucking up her face?" Disappointedly, he sighed and thrust her face away from him. "That's gonna scar."

Auric, who had skillfully sliced the bag with his dagger and buried it beneath some bushes, advanced to his brother's side. "Not my problem. Besides, it's a lesson _learned_." His visible eye became hard, glowering down at Rapunzel. "She knows now who _not_ to mess with." From the corner of his eye, the brother stared at Auric with an expression somewhere between disappointment and understanding. Again his eyes went to Rapunzel, analyzing something she couldn't even begin to understand. What she did know was that it wasn't in a sexual way. Those eyes went deeper than they appeared, into a specific train of thought. Her suspicions were confirmed seconds later when his eyes lit up and he rounded Rapunzel, picking up the messy golden braid dangling behind her head.

"Her hair…" She felt him lift it and then drop it again. A hard laughter hit the air.

"Something funny," Auric inquired skeptically, looking over Rapunzel's shoulder like his brother had gone crazy.

"Young and _healthy_. That woman said young and healthy forever." Rapunzel's attention snapped to what he said. _What woman,_ she questioned mentally. But none of his statements revealed anything other than the fact that this mystery woman existed. The brother returned to her front, her hair still in his hand and smiled at her. "You can heal yourself, can't you?" Rapunzel's voice caught in her throat. "Can't you," he repeated with a hard edge.

Hesitating before she gave any sort of response, Rapunzel reluctantly nodded. Currently no more external injuries were needed. _But_, she thought with a bitter edge, _what does it matter? _She could bring hoist herself up and over the edge of the abyss of death with her powers. What trouble could a few more contusions bring? Rapunzel did admit to herself though that she was upset that it had to be them to point that fact about. That was something very important, and about her no less. In the future she would need to take precious care with her life.

"Oh," he sighed happily, fingering the loosely bound golden locks. "You and I," he spoke softly, huskily, "You and I are going to be good friends." As he lowered her braid down to the floor in front of her, Rapunzel shuddered. "Very, very good friends."

(EUGENE)

Eugene muscles scorched beneath the midday sun. His lungs declared rest from within his chest, protesting with each hurriedly inhaled and just as hurriedly exhaled breath. If it were not for the sweat that drenched his skin and dampened his mucky clothes, Eugene would have passed out from heat and exhaustion half a mile ago. But he couldn't stop. He just knew that it was his last choice but to stop.

When Rapunzel's friend had shown up when someone saved his life, they'd warned him something bad had become of her. He could still hear his words, shouted over thousands of voices, a battlefield inside of the kingdom.

_Eugene's hands gripped the cold metal bars installed deeply into the stone casing of the window. Through it, he could see the beautiful landscaping surrounding the vast kingdom of Corona. Trees and flowers blowing freely in the soft breeze… The day was beautiful. Birds sang high into the air and little creatures continued on with their lives as if they lived free of the negative emotions that plagued Eugene's mind today. His sarcasm and optimism had bowed out long ago, leaving him to the darkest of thoughts. Ones most pertaining to Rapunzel…all the others reluctantly drawn to him. No one in the kingdom could have realized that someone would die today. Eugene's hand withdrew from his the iron, lightly dropping on his warm throat. _

_He wondered pitifully, if she would ever know the truth. He wondered if she would ever forgive his lie in the tragic case that she never uncovered what actually happened last night. The thought sent his stomach writhing nauseously inside of him. She would never let that go. In the same way Eugene would never escape from these stone walls and iron bars. Groaning, he kicked the wall and became flustered at his stupidity in thinking that the Stabbington brothers would ever just accept the crown and turn away. They were very cruel and vengeful men. Out of all the people – criminals – he had worked with, that should have been his lesson. He'd watched them rape and ruin, and pillage and plunder like skin-bound demons ascendant from hell. And not once did he stop them. Not once did he turn them in or feel guilty about his ignorance to the pleas of the helpless and the crimes they'd commit. _

_His punishment for that must have been something taking what meant most to him. What punishment were they receiving though? Flynn Rider had only watched. _The brothers_ had been the ones to cut limb from limb and _the brothers _had been the ones to burn flesh to ash. _

_Forlornly, he thought that maybe it was the ghosts of those he'd watched in patient silence, looking down on him in contempt. Demons from his past meant to execute the work of God himself, earning the pleasure of watching his blood drip on the floor as theirs did however many years ago. From their seats in heaven, they would surely use their divine power to torture him. Eugene refused to believe such nonsense. Not wholeheartedly at least, as he could find no other explanation for his extreme misfortune. Regardless of that, why was Rapunzel the one who would suffer? Knowing the brothers, they had plans upon plans to make over her. Her life would only be rewarded by the gift her hair possessed. Otherwise, they would beat her black and blue and use her until she was too shamed and swollen with child to ever be faced again. It wouldn't be the first time. In recent conquests, they'd raped a whore until death between the both of them. She had been asphyxiated on one end, while the other disgustingly lubricated her insides with her own blood. _

_If that ever happened to Rapunzel, he wouldn't know if a God even existed to allow such crime against the innocent. _

_Suddenly, a far cry was heard from down at the end of the hall. A man, cursing wildly into the air, thrashed against metal chains and the stone walls. Eugene ignored it. Concluding the man was most likely on his way to the guillotine, he was returning to his serenades when more voices roared into the air. Cheers and death threats could be heard when all of a sudden a thud and a crash rang on the walls, echoing down to Eugene's cell with a certain motivational effect. Jogging to the bars, Eugene pressed his cheek against the cool metal and looked as far as he could see down the curved hall. The jingle of keys and thousands of voices filled the air. Each one cried set me free, hand those over! And Eugene could understand why, his own voice rising in the excited air. A particularly large thug had broken his way free of his chains and was unlocking cellmates one by one over the bodies of severely injured soldiers, his boots working carelessly over their blood. It wasn't fatal, Eugene could tell that much, but he wasn't sure if they would surface from unconsciousness with the same face ever again. _

"_Here!" he cried, desperately, waving his arms through the cell bars. "HELP ME, I'M HERE!" Amongst the large crowd of men escaping cell by cell, he finally managed his way to Eugene's door, throwing the keys to him as soldiers began to storm down the halls, armed for war. It was only a second before they charged past the cell before his that Eugene escaped. The keys fell somewhere to the floor, lost amongst the feet of officers as they stampeded like incensed beasts after their prey. Many of the men stopped to fight, for reasons he wasn't sure of, but a few – Eugene included – fled. There was only one reason that could make Eugene quit his escape, and that was one of the reasons he was escaping in the first place. _

_Unfortunately as he made it out of the palace walls, just barely brushing his way past the gates, something clutched a handful of his shirt and threw him back – hard – against the stone wall. Grunting, he looked up, eyes meeting with one of the friends Rapunzel had made at the bar. His name was lost in Eugene's preoccupied mind. The only thing he knew about this guy was that he was holding him back._

"_Let me go, I've got to save –" _

_Eugene was shoved firmly back into his place by the man when he'd begun to start forward. "You want your girl?" Eugene narrowed his eyes, surprised and slightly infuriated at the fact that he might have something to do with her. "Don't waste time. She's in big trouble, and needs your help." His accent was heavy and it was very obvious he only spoke minor bits of English. _

"_Wha—? Rapunzel? Where—?" The man dropped him, backing away. His eyes flickered between him and the opening to Eugene's left. _

"_No time," he murmured and then turned away, running with his head over his shoulder. "Hurry! Save her if you can." And then he was gone, swallowed by the trees. _

Never before had he run so hard. Not once in his life, even when he was being chased by the Royal Guard mounted on the swiftest of steads had he moved with his exhibited speed. Eugene himself noted this truth in some vague and distant part of his mind. It was the only part not concerned with his goal, the only part that lacked the determination and willpower that currently dominated his body. There lied greed and revenge, the part of his mind that retained his selfish desires and begged him – in a voice quickly silenced – to slow down and give up on her face. After all, the last time he had seen it, it was filled with uncertainty and falling faith and the last time he had heard about it was when his old partners were informing him on their intentions towards it. It was the part of his mind that refused to go away, like some bad omen meant to torment him. Something he'd only fed with his selfish desires.

But then, when he was sprinting through a blur of trees, expertly working through crevices and over bushes and rocks and logs, it was all her for her. It was all to save Rapunzel. Something, he reminded himself, completely selfless. For her well-being. Because it didn't matter whether or not Eugene made it out of there alive, and it didn't matter whether or not he would never be able to see her face again. As long as he knew that she was okay and as long as he knew that she would free and happy, he would be content with death. He would rather die and let her be happy than live and know she was suffering.

Eugene's mind halted when his eyes flashed towards the familiar shade of vines. Without a second thought, he bolted through them, sprinkled in the night's collection of dew and exited to meet the tower in his vision. It was a sight for sore eyes. Even if it made him sick to think that she could be in there. Not considering anything other than Rapunzel, he called out to her at the top of his lungs. "Rapunzel!" Jogging forward, he heard no response, saw nothing to meet his vision from her large window, and cursed. For his own personal reassurance, he told himself – and almost believed – that perhaps she was upset at him and she was giving him the silent treatment. But could someone in her predicament play such games?

Praying that she was all right, he pulled the two knives from his shoes and began his climb up her tower, throwing more force than necessary behind each stab. The stones were cool, shadowed by the sun. Dirt fell on his face. As he ascended, the air grew cooler and cooler and the selfish part of his mind swore villainously that if she were there he would have heard something by now. He was so close; he should hear something by now! The silence was deafening and only broken by pigeons that scattered upon his arrival.

Hand meeting the edge of the window sill, Eugene pulled himself up and over, rolling gratefully onto the wooden floor. Darkness pervaded his vision. Getting to his feet, he called out, "Rapunzel!" and began scouring the rooms for any sign of her, opening windows for light, pulling at levers and finding some worked and others didn't. It had been so long that people had been there that a light layer of dust was brushed over everything, signifying its lack of usage. Her absence seemed to make the place colder, the light, warm-colored walls misleading. Realizing she wasn't there, Eugene knew he shouldn't waste any more time there looking for her, but he couldn't help himself. Something painful pitched itself in his chest, stinging like alcohol over a wound. Seeing all these things only increased the agony, and he couldn't resist feeling guilty.

It was his fault that she was somewhere she didn't want to be right now. It was all his fault that she'd be used and abused by them when it should be him. Gazing up at the cheerful artwork, ornamenting the walls around him, he felt the pain intensify. She was so innocent, and pure, and better and kinder than any human being he had ever come in contact with. Despite him being a criminal, she had never judged him. She accepted Eugene Fitzherbert wholeheartedly and didn't need someone like Flynn Rider to keep her satisfied. In fact, she had preferred Eugene to Flynn and that was a choice no one made. _But her_.

His eyes watered as he regarded the painting she had made of herself from the back, staring up at the floating lanterns with her long hair falling in curled tendrils down her back and spilling out onto the floor. Her face flashed through his mind, the wonder and awe spread across her beautiful features as she gazed up at the lantern-filled sky. Those flowers decorating her hair, her excitement when they tore through the library, danced in the square, hid from Corona officers. It had all been a beauty to him and a thrill to her. Rapunzel had trusted him throughout it all. It was his job – no, _priority_ – to keep her safe, and now she was gone!

Fist pounding into the wall, Eugene's hands turned to rage as they began throwing things around the rooms, adorning the floor with broken glass, sewing needles, books, plates, clothes. Nothing was there to hold him back or control him now. He was completely free and unleashed, irate at the fact that he did this. _Smash_. It was all _his_ fault! _Shatter_. EVERYTHING WAS HIS FAULT! _CRASH_. The mirror laid at his feet, wood splintered and glass reflecting his angry, tear-streaked face back up at him. Eugene watched – as if from another person's eyes – himself fall to the ground. He could see the pain etched across his face as he broke down in hysterical sobs, the guilt taking over him and swallowing him in its powerful undertow. His forehead touched the floor, his hands tightly fisted in his hair as he screamed at the world. His own hot breath returned to his face, warming his cheeks against the fierce cold that now owned these vacant rooms. That selfish part of his mind had warned him and it now congratulated itself on being right about this.

"Why?" He questioned, banging his fist on the ground. Keen edged glass jumped up around his hand. "Why?" The question was directed at someone, but Eugene couldn't tell who. God? The Stabbington brothers? His demons? Himself? All of them? "WHY!" As a result of his painful screams, Eugene's throat felt torn to shreds from within. If he found his voice, it would probably start yelling again in uncontrollable anguish. Unsurprisingly, Eugene found himself content with silence and decided to just lay there, not trusting his hands either. His mind, ever split between two sides, gave its condolences and wished his pain upon him. It pitied him and blamed him. But Eugene made an agreement for the two and chalked it up to guilt.

Eventually Eugene realized he was given no choice save to stand and move on, which – somehow – he did. Like always, he got to his feet and prepared to venture to somewhere new. Although this time he was finding the place where Rapunzel was. Because wherever she was, it was essential that he was there too.

He would find her. Not because he had too, but because he wanted to. Rapunzel was his and his alone, and no price could be put over her head. And when he found her (because he was sure he would), he'd never let her go again. She belonged to him and as he came down from her tower, he set out on his journey to save her, knowing the exact place to start.


	4. Chapter 4

**What did I say? Only a day and a new update! Was I right, or was I right? Hope you enjoy my work. [Worked my ass off with the hopes that you will.]**

Mouth watering, Rapunzel reluctantly puzzled over the last time she had eaten a full meal. While traveling with Eugene around Corona? Perhaps it was even longer than that. Two or three days ago? After all, Eugene had only supplied her with foods able to temporarily staunch the growling that erupted from her stomach. She had been too kind to ask him to spend the limited amount of money he'd had, knowing that a thief like him would only have _so _much to spend. An apple here, she counted. Some baked goods there. A couple slices of fresh bread had been her most recent enjoyment. But that was nearly two days ago.

Her stomach rumbled noisily.

Since Auric had molested Rapunzel earlier in that day, she'd noticed a great deal of things about her own body. A lot of those things should've been discernible like how often she needed to use the restroom, the amount of times a day she would consume some sort of food and drink. But most of things went right under the bridge of her nose, without gaining even the slightest of attention from Rapunzel unless she was ill. Whenever she'd been sick though, Mother Gothel sharply brought her eating habits to attention. In those moments however, she'd scolded Rapunzel on not eating _enough_. _To get well_, she would say, wagging a finger in the air, _you have to eat. _Otherwise, Gothel went about her day, complying with every need that came upon Rapunzel like the kind mother she was. Here, Rapunzel was completely overlooked and sometimes ridiculed when she tried calling to their attention that she had needs. It made the trip so much longer. If it were anything other than urgent, Rapunzel would stay quiet. Her pride – which was just beginning to recover bits of its tatters – would not let her speak unless that was the case. There were never exceptions.

She quickly discovered that her needs were only important if one of the brothers had needs. Otherwise they were negligible. And the brothers almost never needed anything, not even rest.

Nighttime must have fallen at least two hours before they had settled. Just then, Rapunzel couldn't ascertain whether it was because they had "worthy merchandise" with them or because they worked at that pace usually but they seemed to have no problem with it. Unlike Rapunzel, the brothers held strong, even breaths that betrayed no sign of weakness in them. It must have been something they'd picked up considering they spent most of their lives on the run.

They promptly set up a fire, Auric leaving for a brief period of time to go and fetch their dinner. His absence only provided a slight amount of relief to come over Rapunzel. She trusted neither of them but he had committed a crime against her. He was the one she hated with all of her being. While Auric was gone – not but for five minutes – his brother took the chains they'd bound around her wrists and wrapped them around the trunk of a tree. Its circumference was so immense that the brother just barely managed to latch the lock on two chains straining to meet each other. Rapunzel suffered from their poor choice with her hands raised up over her head, wrists tightly bound between the harsh and rusting metal. It caused a great discomfort in her hands, blood unable to reach her fingertips. She wiggled them occasionally to help the flow of blood. Didn't provide much aid.

Auric's return brought on the growling again, her eyes focused on the plump rabbits in his hand, dangling with hardly any marks on them. Their limp positions betrayed they were dead but nothing else. Rapunzel surmised he'd broken their necks. She watched gluttonously as they skinned the once cute animals and roasted them over the fire. Their muscles turned a beautiful golden hue, smoking rising and wafting over their savory scent to greet Rapunzel's nose. An unintentional noise escaped her of pure longing. She'd never been this hungry.

One of the brothers, bent over his knees as he roasted the rabbit, looked over at her and chuckled sardonically. A grimace flooded her features, her half-lidded eyes now glaring at the felon.

The meat, finally finished and only burnt in some places put too close to the smoldering fire, was removed from its stick and placed in the hands of the Stabbington brothers. Rapunzel, not truly realizing the depths of their selfishness, felt her chest swell with hope each time they adjusted their position any closer to her. Each time they raised the meat up into the air, her body eased forward just slightly as if to meet them halfway. But she was discouraged to find that it only met their mouths, the meat torn to shreds between their teeth and the sweet flavored grease dripping off their chins to the floor. She watched as if from far away as they greedily consumed the copious amounts of succulent food and ate until their heart's content. Auric even took his time to smugly lick the remaining juices from his fingers while his brother merely wiped the leftovers on his dark green pants.

The longing and emotion she felt emerging in her throat was quickly cramped down. If she couldn't eat then she would try to focus on something else. Choosing to assuage her hunger by ruminating over her justified hate for the two, she chose to make a pithy comment that would certainly cost her some physical ache. "You're selfish pigs."

Both men halted their actions, Auric popping open the lid to a canteen (which brought Rapunzel's desiccated tongue to the tip of her mind) and his brother picking his teeth with his knife. Almost like they'd forgotten her presence, they directed their attention to her and – with stoic expressions – answered her. "We know," the nameless one murmured in his usual brogue. "But," he rose to his feet, kicking himself forward from his laidback position, "We don't need you to say it, Blondie."

Dagger wielded dangerously in his hand, he approached Rapunzel and then – when he was just close enough that his knees brushed against her knees – kneeled in front of her. She cowered back and away from him, recalling the experience his wonderful brother – who looked so much like him – gave her. With his usual pugnacious manner, he raised the dagger towards her face and placed it just beneath her chin, pressing it up and against the soft spot under her head.

Using the keen knife's edge, the Stabbington brother directed her head to face him, moved it away from its defensive position in her shoulder. Tilting his head into his hand, he inquired upon her, "Do you know who we are?" Rapunzel remained silent. Her appetite had vanished. There was only enough room in her body for her fear. "No?" A wide grin spread across his face, creating an expression that was more inimical than usual. The knife's end rose up into her soft skin, drawing a pinpoint of blood there. "We are Auric and Lyle Stabbington! The most wanted thieves in all of Corona. The most wanted _criminals_ I should say, considering we've done a lot more than steal," he chuckled as if he were remembering a joke. "And we take everything and anything we want. Lives, money, _women,_" – the dagger pressed farther into her, earning a petrified gasp – "homes, children, horses, food. It is all ours.We don't care what you say. We've heard worse. We _are_ worse. But…what I do care about is when people talk about us. Blondie," he scratched his stubbly chin, his eyes directed at the floor and then back up at Rapunzel again, "unless you're going to speak in fear about us, don't speak at all. Because," – he set the dagger on her cheek, just beneath her eye, "then there must be consequences." His smile had vanished, exchanged with an extremely grim frown. Rapunzel's heart beat became irregular, palpitating with trepidation. "There must always be consequences."

In one swift motion, the blade slit the skin of her cheek, drawing blood from beneath her eye to the corner of her lips. Her screams of pain and tears only made the pain worse.

Lyle merely chortled in pure amusement, retiring back to his original resting position up against the tree. Auric cast his eyes over at Rapunzel and then back to Lyle. "What about not 'damaging the merchandise?'"

"Things change when people can heal themselves." Lyle snapped at his brother, not bothering to open his eyes. Rapunzel trembled and rose shakily until her head met her hands. When she could feel the familiar brush of her hair against her nearly numb fingers, she began to pull her hair up, trying to get it out of her braid before something would heal wrong. Choking back sobs against the pain, she finally managed to free enough of one lock that it would dangled just across her bleeding face and swooped back, nearly covering the entire wound. It was quickly doused in her own crimson red blood.

Rapunzel waited until the two ruffians had fallen asleep, frightened at the possibility that they would witness her gift and become rapt in its extents, to heal herself. In comparison to her usual jovial song, the one she sang then was murmured and quick, filled with tears and horribly deep sorrow. As the golden hue flooded over her vision in one eye, the tingling sensation fanned out over her cheek as comforting as thousands of butterfly kisses over the abysmal laceration. Within only a matter of seconds, Rapunzel's face felt well again. Better than before even, free of the uncomfortable nuisances and throbbing her head-injury had been causing her for two days now.

Truthfully Rapunzel's pain had been alleviated to such a degree that she felt herself nearly smile as she drifted off to sleep; a certain placid looks etched across her features. Even in spite of her dire situation.

(EUGENE)

Eugene's boot kicked at some rocks, casting dirt and dust sparkling into the moonlight air.

"Fuck," he whispered out into the still night air. Although Eugene was completely alone, the habit of speaking more softly in silence was something that had lived with him for a long time. Whether it had derived from his preceding life of thievery or it had just been a natural instinct, he could neither tell nor remember. He'd been stealing his entire life. Again his boots connected with the plentiful rock supply blanketing the floor.

Earlier that morning, Eugene had set out for the notorious isolated shore of Corona. The same place he had been only one night before when Rapunzel had been ripped from his grasp. Getting to it was extremely difficult (especially given that he had only just that morning escaped from hundreds of officers that now hunted for his head). But it wasn't impossible despite the illusion it gave with the obstacles guarding it. It was just difficult. He recalled the numerous times he'd attempted to sneak into the castle. (Each entrance and exit was presently being guarded by at least three officers.) Every effort he made had been shot to hell when he saw that even the narrowly noticeable niches were scoured for signs of anything other than plant life and statues. The guards had begun to buckle down on all things Corona. Every importing and exporting wagon was thoroughly examined. Each person who walked through the gates had to be checked by officials to see if they were a convict on the run from their doom and the law. The intimidation they'd forced over every person who so much as looked at them was tremendous.

Eugene however was entirely unfazed. More times than he had limbs to count had he witnessed the stupidity of law officials. The only thing that held him back from proceeding to take the gamble of death was Rapunzel. Taking a chance such as that while he was trying to get on the hunt for her was completely undoable. One escape from their innermost cells was a miracle. Two escapes would have to be some sort of divine intervention.

So he'd hiked up his boots, walked through some outstandingly sticky – and deep – mud, climbed a few trees, fell from a few trees, and made it to the shoreline where the scene was exactly as he'd left it. Except it was missing a person or two. The thought wrenched his heart.

For hours Eugene had spent time looking for signs, tearing through their stolen boat, watching the dirt-covered areas for boot prints that would lead to their destination, but it had been hopeless. Lazy Eugene asked to give up. Determined Eugene tried his best not to half-ass because it was dark enough in the moonlight and seeing something not noticed in the sun would definitely be harder to notice in the moon's lunar glow.

"Fuck," he repeated, kicking a rock harder than he expected into a bush.

A chirp greeted his ears and Eugene paused.

"What the?"

A raucous succession of familiar chirps erupted in an angry manner, the tone effortlessly determinable while the words remained unclear. Eugene, ignited by a sudden flurry of hope, abruptly pivoted on his heel and raced to the sounds, dropping to his knees before the bush he'd kicked the rock into. Wasting no time in the frivolous act of searching between plant parts, he ripped the bush from its roots bit by bit until the memorable robust shape and striking green color of Pascal met his eyes. Seeing the creature brought on a welcomed rush of emotion, a lot of it fear for his condition. Gingerly Eugene picked up Rapunzel's best friend and laid him in his palms, meeting the skeptical chameleon's eyes.

"Pascal…" The animal's eyes rolled up to him and a smile creased the little guy's face. Eugene was grateful, reassured that he would live. Most of the gratitude however arrived because now he could get information out of him. No one was useful if they were dead. "What happened?" Face manifesting agonizingly; Eugene got a sense that whatever had befallen Rapunzel had not been something good. "Did they take her?" His throat was tight with emotion. Closing his eyes, Pascal's countenance gave Eugene the impression that he wasn't wrong to think so. "Did they – did they hurt her…" Several moments passed before the usually querulous Pascal gave his response in a mournful chirp. During the length of time that passed, his disinclination towards answering Eugene had said enough.

With a painful curiosity, Eugene wondered if Rapunzel had entreated for her freedom. Knowing her, she would not have just given in. How fickle she had been in the thought alone of returning to her tower to be used by her mother proved to him that she wasn't prepared to be taken advantage of by anyone. Considering that was the sole intention the Stabbington brothers had for her, she must have run away. _Hopefully_ she had gotten away by now.

Detouring from his train of thought, he inquired upon Pascal, "Which way did they take her?" Sensing that Eugene necessitated him to further demystify and assist him in finding Rapunzel, he mustered up his strength and began to lead him along the way. As they walked, Pascal pointed out scenes of her capture that Eugene had literally walked over. One of those items, Eugene wasn't at all enthused about finding, only discovering that her blood was the black liquid that had dried over the rock. Upon discovering that fact, he promptly dropped the rock and felt a horror flourish through his being. The undesirable feeling only grew when, along the path Pascal was leading him on, those black dots occasionally appeared, dying the light colored rocks to a revolting hue.

When Pascal no longer held the ability to remain conscious, Eugene positioned him snugly in his pocket, allowing him time to rest. Meanwhile Eugene would follow the trail of boots made noticeable by Pascal who had attested to their creation. He hoped that this path would guide him somewhere beneficial to his quest because he was running out of things to do and places to go that would actually facilitate his troubles. Tracking the Stabbington brothers down was hard enough, but with no leads? He'd have two options left to make and neither of them offered him any solace. All he could hope for then was that he would do a better job than any of the police men who'd failed before him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry, I didn't check it for errors. It's literally 1:46 am and I am doing the WORST last minute planning. I'll check it and probably re-update while I'm gone. Anyways, I finished this 5 hours ago and got very, very distracted while getting ready. So here I am, uploading with wet nails and a very pained back. I wrote this all today and I hope you like! Smut warning! **

**BTW: THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEWS. They're succinct and beautiful. Let's me know I have readers! :D Bye! (Feels accomplished.)**

There was no other word than content that could describe how she felt when she woke from her deep slumber. The glowing haze that had forced her eyes open was neither obnoxiously presented nor easily dismissible. Its boldness was just enough that she willed herself to seek it out, eyes easily able to withstand its glorious shine like looking at the sun through a light fog of clouds. Her wide eyes searched and searched, head bending from shoulder to shoulder, torso twisting to determine its origin but it remained consistent in its magnificence around her. Seamlessly its golden hue lit up the air, tinting the girl's skin an exquisite and luxurious shade.

Regarding her arms in its florescent emission, she found it hard to even tear her eyes from her own familiarity. A familiarity she couldn't exactly recall at the moment. From sky to floor, she comprehended there was no end and she was merely surrounded by the light.

Adjusting her position, she felt a smooth and plush material against her bare legs. Further inspecting her discovering, she hesitantly bent forward and after only a moment's delay brushed her fingertips against it. In a fear she couldn't explain, her hand shot back. With all that was encompassing her, she hadn't expected to find something tangible in the midst of it. She hadn't even _expected_ anything of it. And yet…

With a better sense of confidence, the girl with long golden tresses returned her hand to its position against the material, her fingers dancing across its smooth surface. Pleasantly she giggled, her index finger drawing designs into the invisible _thing_. Across the light – as her fingers created things only her imagination knew of – golden lights appeared. Shapes and random swirls appeared beneath her skin. "Beautiful," she sighed, sparkles scintillating into the air and vanishing with the dissipation of her breath. "What?" Again it happened, and as she reached out for them, a new light began appearing from above her, halting her actions.

Grinning, she observed as the glowing walls split into triangles that lowered around her, revealing a whole new world from behind them. The nameless girl stood with much difficulty – she'd never remembered using her legs before – and regarded everything around her as if she'd never see it again. Smells and noises filled the air, colors of all shades surprising her and enchanting her all at once. On the steady and soft ground, she ungraciously tottered forward, laughing at herself when her steps progressively became more even. "I can do this," she whispered as she steadily placed one foot onto a glowing triangle and walked down its slope. Reaching the end of it, she treated the ground with the same caution she had shown the floor within the glowing room.

Only when the tips of her toes brushed against the innocuous blade of grass did she bound forward carelessly, her legs faithfully propelling her forward across the distance. She twirled and twirled when she stopped, not quitting until she was dizzy and breathless, her head as airy as the wind that gathered up her hair. Heart soaring, the girl reached up towards the clear blue sky, face relishing the heat provided by the sun, and willed herself to fly. With all the enjoyment and lighthearted bliss she felt coursing through her, it didn't seem impossible. _Not_ flying seemed impossible.

But she lowered her arms when the spinning ceased and gazed down at herself, examining the person she couldn't remember ever existing. "What am I?" She said aloud to herself in a carefree curiosity. This time the shimmering sparkles remained inside of her but a miracle was not far from appearing. While her eyes registered her unique form, a fabric blossomed from her skin like flowers blooming from their seeds in a meadow. It commenced in her belly button, vines rounding over her tan flesh and looping behind her neck, connecting with other glowing pieces and weaving an outfit right before her eyes. To say the least, the girl was enraptured in what she had just seen, astonished at the possibilities offered here. Immediately she ran her hands over the fabric, its golden glow of life gone and in its place the slightly less fascinating colors of the sun.

The dress – woven of inconceivable powers – ended at her knees, cutting out triangles like sharp-ended flowers where an even hemline should be. It made a halter around her neck and allowed her arms and legs more movement than she assumed would be possible. The fact that she had assumed anything surprised her. "Where am I?" she asked suddenly, thoughtlessly. Looking around, she recognized the area as a meadow, vibrantly colored with a wide variegation consisting of more shades of blue and red and green than she though could exist. Trees stood tall and proud as well, gathering in a dark cluster at the edge that eventually became a forest.

The girl couldn't exactly tell what, but something about that forest seemed frightening to her. Its thick canopy occluded most of the sun's luminescent glow and made it give off a formidable air.

Retracting her gaze from the depths of the forest, her eyes came upon something startling. Beneath the morning sky, a large and resplendent flower sat, striking in size and beauty creating an emission of light so grand that it could have rivaled the sun's for dominance. It took no time at all for the girl to grasp that it was not a room she had been sitting in, but a flower. And it was not releasing her to an outer world, but purely blooming for itself. What she had to question on though, was what she had been doing inside of it? An odd thought struck her. Was she Thumbelina?

The nameless girl was clueless and perplexed at the thought that had immediately popped into her mind. Ten seconds ago she had no recollection of anything and yet when she saw an external view of the flower she remembered a story from long ago. Or at least it felt like long ago. All she could remember was the story, not the time it was told or who had told it. The nameless girl simply knew that it was a hazy memory. The story was a fairy tale about a little girl who'd bloomed from a flower like a child from their mother's womb.

Another thought came upon her. What if it hadn't been a story? What if that had been her life? The girl, engrossed in her thoughts, was suddenly captured by thousands of questions, all of them raging wildly in her mind with a certain need for their answers. But she couldn't answer them. Around her only plants remained and up until a few minutes ago she had been naked and absolutely empty of anything preceding that day. The curiosity sustained its position within her though, demanding to be acknowledged. It was once a simple and innocent curiosity that could be deterred from with the millions of things around her. But those things now seemed trivial and infinitesimal in comparison to her more pressing questions. They had transformed much like her curiosity which had become a ravenous lust that hunted for answers.

"Thumbelina," she blurted out impulsively. No bells of familiarity rang. "Thumbelina!" Again her voice was quick and loud, desperately trying to pull answers out of herself but nothing happened. She sighed and looked away when something far off in the distance caught her eye. "Huh?" Her eyes flickered upward, focusing on something small and fast hopping between tall clusters of grass. A gush of excitement lit up in her. This could be her chance for answers. "Hello?" She called out, slowly walking forward. The white thing erected itself, its red and black eyes meeting with hers for a fraction of a second before it began to dart away. "Hello? Uh, wait!" The girl cried out, beginning a fast dash towards the thing, all the while gathering bundles of her own obscenely long hair. "Hey, wait!" Faltering before her, the girl hopefully surged after the thing, knowing full and well that she was gaining. "Wait! I just want to talk to you."

One hop was all it took for the thing to escape. The girl – reluctantly – slowed to a stop, hair gathered in her arms as she eyed the vast forest that was laid out before her. In one single move, the thing had disappeared into this. All it took was one blast of confidence and it disappeared into the brush just before the opening of the woods, out of her sight and her out of its mind. Sighing, she nervously swallowed, tossing over the thought of entering the woods and fulfilling her need for answers. _It just takes a little confidence_, she thought. After everything she'd discovered so far in this world, this little thing couldn't be so bad. Each time before hand she'd been afraid, but she'd taken a chance. This was just the same as all those others time. But another part of her mind cried out to her and warned her that this time it would be different. All those other times, she had been working beneath the reassuring eyes of the sun. This time, she would be taking confidence in darkness.

Mustering up some resolve, the girl fought with herself. "No! That's just your fear talking." And she took a step forward. "It's just…your _fear_ talking." Heart pounding, the girl entered the woods, her bare feet crunching on dried leaves and her bare hands clutching to rough trees for balance. A bad feeling had set itself in her stomach. She familiarized herself with the emotion. Several times today, she'd been forced to feel it. Nonetheless it didn't make feeling it any easier to handle. Deciding that focusing on the finding the red-eyed thing, the girl called out. "Hello?"

Her voice was slow and unsteady. On this side of the field, everything was abnormally silent. There wasn't wind to whistle through the air, there were no visible animals or even living plants. All there was was quiet. Even above them, the trees' leaves refused to sing in the wind. As she ventured further into the dark place, she slowly came upon the realization that most things on this side of the woods were dead. Eventually, the silence had become so immense that a break in it was more intimidating that itself.

"Hello?" She whispered, her chest feeling tight. Right then, she wasn't wholly sure she'd made the right decision to arrive there. "I was just – I was just here to talk. I – I don't know who I am!" Licking her arid and chapped lips, the girl continued uneasily, walking aimlessly into the forest. "I was thinking that, maybe you could help me." Pausing for a reply, the girl brought her little journey to an end. If there was no answer, there'd be no need to go further. Curiosity, which had driven her that far, had turned to distress and she felt no true need to travel any farther with that emotion in mind. "Hello…"

When no reply was given to her, she turned on shaky legs back to the way she had come and shrieked in startled horror at what she saw before her. "Hey there, Blondie." In her fright, all of her hair had tumbled out her hands, spilling onto the dirty floor. "Miss us?" Two tall men with dark red hair and intimidating appearances stood in front of her, something white squirming at one of their sides. "Were you looking for this?" Lyle Stabbington held out a white rabbit in front of him, its long ears caught in his hand and its body curled up and tense, eyes boring into Rapunzel's. She recognized the red and black irises from what she had seen in the meadow.

Was this what she had been chasing? "What?" she breathlessly asked.

Transforming in his hands, the white rabbit suddenly became a tattered brown satchel, full of something concealed by its top. "Here," he tossed it at her. "We don't want it." It landed at her feet, a sumptuous crown falling halfway out of the hoary bag. In her mind, a male's voice whispered to her. _Rapunzel, I'll be right back. _She gasped at the pain that flooded in her chest. Her dress glowed and grew, the light casting shadows on the Stabbington brothers' faces that created expressions even more terrifying. The dress stretched down her to feet, torn at her waist and mucked up with dirt and dried red blood. The light was gone now, leaving her again in darkness.

"What?" she cried out, tears pouring out of her eyes. Raising her hands up to her face, she noticed something off about her wrists. Examining them closer, the girl noticed they were bruised and red, scathed up and lightly coated with blood. "No," she moaned.

Auric approached her, grinning deviously. "But yes…" as he rounded her, his fingers lightly brushed against a few strands of her hair. "It was a fair trade," he whispered. _Fair trade. A crown… for the girl with the magic hair_. She felt her eyes go wide, insanity taking over. "Rapunzel." Like a ticking bomb, Rapunzel went off. She felt the explosion of the memories in her mind, what they had done to her, how they treated her. Seeing it all in a flash made her feel nearer to insanity than she cared to admit.

No thoughts this time, Rapunzel sprinted away from the Stabbington brothers, aiming to escape back to her world of light and bliss. Her body moved expertly, hindered more and more as pains she couldn't remember having rose up to give their introductions. "Ungh," she cried out, clutching her pained side with bruised hands felt herself heaving the way she did seconds before she was ready to vomit. How could she have ever convinced herself to leave her old world? Just because everything had gone right before? She felt so stupid!

Tugging at her scalp, they teased her before they truly used her hair as reigns against her. When they did finally decide to halt her actions completely, one of the brothers roughly yanked her back by a long golden lock while the other pursued her and gathered her in his arms before she could fall. There, stuck between Auric Stabbington's chest and forearms, Rapunzel thrashed and clawed at him. Unhappily she found him fully clothed in dark black leather all the way until his wrists where his mere hands were exposed to the light of day but – save his face – nothing else. "PLEASE!"

"You are mine!" The two brothers cruelly mocked, both of their voices meeting in unison as she felt to the floor. Gasping in pain, she tried to collect herself and prepare for the fight they would have to deal with but they were too fast. Moving with a speed Rapunzel's mortal eyes couldn't capture, she saw their black forms move like smoky shadows over her and then pinning her arm and legs with their hands. Auric was above her, his one hand effortlessly maintaining a grip against her already pained wrists while his other hand savagely tore off her bodice. Bit by bit the shredded cloth felt to the floor, her underdress thinly veiling her breasts, her chest heaving with panicked breaths.

"No," she groaned, burying her head in her shoulder. "Not again!" Lyle, who'd been at her feet and used his weight to pin and part her legs, hurriedly pushed the fabric up to expose her entire lower half. The cold air sent goose bumps across her skin, her body convulsing so severely that she could have passed for having a seizure.

"Sit still," Lyle hollered, a hand striking her hard across the face. Auric, waiting patiently until his brother finished slapping Rapunzel, roughly tore her underdress' top half into half, exposing an ample amount of her chest and stomach. He wasted no time in grabbing at one of her breasts and roughly massaging it in his hand, his mouth bending over to her other breast to capture its nipple between his teeth. More screams and tears erupted from Rapunzel, her body bucking relentlessly against their weight, her mind never willing to capitulate to them. Her body wouldn't surrender to them too if she could help it. Even then though, Rapunzel couldn't deny the wetness forming between her thighs.

Getting a start on his torture, Lyle crudely shoved two fingers into her damp core, pumping them in and out of her in pure abandon. She moaned at the sensation, biting her lip immediately after to contain any more noises that might escape. Her ambivalence towards this was unexplainable, her body craving the attention like a wild animal in heat but her mind retained complete reluctance. It screamed its hate and tried to gain control of her being but as Lyle worked and ravaged her cunt, Rapunzel became lost in her senses. It was vulgar and quick, one hand working its way in her quickly and then moving painfully slow while the other hand teased her body. It brushed the skin of her thigh, moving leisurely closer to her clit and then after one soft press on that heated spot, would stroke her other thigh and then repeat again. Mentally, she knew it was a recipe for disaster and ruin but her body screamed for more.

When her orgasm came, she bucked shamefully against his hand, a pleasure taking control of her body and then slowly ebbing away, leaving her to her mortification. Later she would castigate herself for giving in.

Few seconds passed when Lyle's voice suddenly groaned, "You're mine."

Snapping from her trance, Rapunzel strained to crane her head in a way that would enable her to see beyond Auric but it was no use. His large frame blocked most visible sights and the others could not be accessed without her face touching something she'd rather stay away from. But when she felt its head pressed up against her core, she was glad she couldn't see because she would have cried more than she already was. "No," her voice soared high into the air, loud panicked shrieks filling the silence. "NO!"

Rapunzel woke gasping in pain.

Her eyes frantically gazed around, settling on Lyle who had raised a foot to kick her. "Shut up," he grumbled. Beneath his eyes were the only signs of exhaustion, two miniature bags carving into his alabaster skin. His alert form contradicted what she saw, but she was sure he felt the same fatigue that drained energy from her system. Reason being for this, it was still dark outside, the sun just barely brushing against the horizon. Above her the sky remained deep cerulean, shades of the nights prevailing over the slowly rising sun.

Auric rose to his feet, waking without any visible signs of vulnerability. Rapunzel was sure though that even while he was deeply asleep he persisted in being prepared for any attack that might come. Wandering over to Lyle, Auric mumbled, "Let's go now. We're all awake anyways." With a curt nod, Lyle made his way over to the lock and detached it from the two chains. Rapunzel's body sagged immediately, a sharp pain shooting to her hands as blood resumed flowing through her veins. She gasped and brought her hands down to her face, rubbing the pins and needles out of her lead-weight limbs.

Lyle jerked the chain, pulling Rapunzel to her feet. _Today_, she thought as her tired body sagged forward, arms extended as they drew her along, _is going to be a long day_.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey! Guess what. What? I haven't died! Shocking, right? I mean with how long I've been gone, you would think that I got ran over or something but no. I've just been busy and experiencing the WORST CASE OF WRITER'S BLOCK IN THE HISTORY OF ALL THAT IS EVERYTHING. **

**Useless Rambling That's Irrelevant: I'm really sorry. I've been very busy. School, jobs, purchases. I need a new car – that's used – and I have to work enough hours to make a down payment on that so it's like: Oh, you're just getting home from school? Time to go to work. 10 p.m. comes around and it's literally me just staying up till 12 working on homework. It sucks. And then these previous weekends, I've been either working or dealing with family fighting and it's just a big bag of lifesucksballs. So yeah! There you go.**

**I hope you guys like this though. I wrote it through my block so it may kind of suck and I also didn't spell check it so please excuse the errors! I love you, guys. Thank you BTW for the AMAZING reviews. I dedicate this to all of you out there who have prior to this message either favorited, followed, or reviewed. 'Kay, bye! 3**

Rapunzel felt like she was about to vomit. Walking over hard wood floors, her sore heels gratefully felt the pleasure of the cool and somewhat even ground, with only a little fear of splinters playing in her mind.

Having spent the day walking over rocks and bushes and in mud and tall bushels of grass that made their depth seem much less than they were, Rapunzel's feet hurt. More so than her sides which, with each bend and twist and drop in unexpectedly low ground, were pressing her to wrap her hair around her waist and relieve herself of the pain. To make matters even worse, the day had only begun four hours prior and they had woken far after dawn. Rapunzel could – with complete certainty – name the reason for her pain though.

For the past four days, they had trudged nonstop through the great forest surrounding the kingdom of Corona. The Stabbington brothers, she had learned, were beasts. Throughout the past days, she'd observed them, making mental notes that occupied the excess amount of leisure time she'd been given and dually proved beneficiary to her escape plans.

Lyle had not lied when he said he took what he wanted when he wanted it.

Whenever they came across another traveler they harmed them in some way. If male, they stole from him any provisions he'd carried and occasionally sought to humiliate that person by stripping them and binding them to a tree. If female, things took a darker turn. One Rapunzel could not bear to witness and even ignored, trying so hard to persuade her own mind that that would not be her future. Some dark part of her mind felt almost grateful that it was them and not her. If she had the option, she would linger from those terrifying large hands. If she had the option she'd never see their faces again. Luckily, they'd only encountered one female. Rapunzel remembered her name and her messy brown hair, collected lazily behind her head. She'd been kind but stupid in thinking she could run. Escaping the Stabbington brothers was truthfully a farcical dream.

That was why she was apprehensive in entering the tavern they'd come across, even if it did remove much of pain brought with her being on her feet. Adding to her skepticism was when they'd made her fix up her hair so that it was less noticeable, and then, once her hair was skillfully fixed, wrapped it with an illustrious cloth that ranged in colors of gold to black over her hair and face. After her head and hair were veiled, a stolen dress was given and forced over her, colors matching in coordination with her coverings. Her underdress had prevented her from nudity before their eyes, and so the resistance she gave was much less than it would have been. Nonetheless, Rapunzel couldn't bear to watch them toss her dress into the river. Now nothing but her own body, tainted by the hands of their filth, was left to serve as a memory to her former life. With it, she watched Mother Gothel disappear, Pascal falling from her shoulder, and Eugene floating away with avaricious abandon.

Rapunzel stared long after it was out of sight. Auric had to forcefully shove her away to keep their pace up to par. Then the rundown wooden structure came into view and the brothers growled disgustingly in her ear, "Keep your head down," pushing her in without even a reason why.

A heavy stench greeted her when they entered the room. It was foul and strong, recognizably similar to sweat and yet something stronger. Crinkling up her nose, she kept her eyes obediently trained on the floor, knowing her head would follow them if raised and lead her to dire consequences. Humiliation was not a priced easily paid and it was not without just reason that Rapunzel hated them.

Her eyes weren't necessary though when she could hear the loud thrum of music played over the laughter of others, and grunts and thuds that she assumed were from dancing. People shouted from afar, their glasses slamming down on their tables as they called to the waitress for more. Rapunzel desperately desired to see all the commotion around her and why it dimmed just slightly in their wake. But Lyle Stabbington maintained a steady grip on her shoulder that guided her and silently transpired a warning to do as he said. To her left, even the musicians paused for a moment before slowly resuming their beat and working back up to their fast pace.

At the end of their long walk across the room, they stopped at a dirty counter, wet with drinks and smudged with unidentifiable substances. A woman laughed obstreperously.

"What do you want," a man grumbled from before them. Rapunzel dared to raise her eyes, squeezing her hands together in front of her anxiously.

"A room." Rapunzel stared at the elderly man. Although his face was wrinkled, his hair was white, and his clothes showed no sign of care or wealth, the man exuded authority. While drying a wet glass with a brown rag well beyond its wash date, he studiously eyed Auric and Lyle. Gruffly snorting, he opened his mouth to dismiss them, promptly quieting himself when a bulging black sack dropped with a jingle onto the counter. "One night to have a room and do with it as we please. No interruptions."

Cocking back his head, the man paused his cleanings and set the cup down on a hidden ledge beneath the counter. Tossing the rag over his shoulder onto a shelf he couldn't have possibly seen, he leaned forward, plucking up the bag. Loosening its strings, he opened it and scoured its contents, a pleased expression transforming his face. "Thirty pence," he stated rhetorically, emptying the sack into a bag of his own, connected cleverly to his pants. "Hefty price for only one night. But sadly, not enough for one to keep quiet, in assumption that this was paid for secrecy as well as service. Might I ask," he smirked unscrupulously, as if he had a card that would bend them to his will, "who is it, that you gentlemen be running from?"

Not a second had passed after he spoke that the man had a dagger to his throat wielded by Lyle Stabbington. Rapunzel's head shot up instinctually, startled by the sudden change in their situation. "None of your business, old man," he snarled. Obviously having been in this situation before, the old man sneered.

"But this is my business, young man. You'd best be under the intentions of shielding your weapon. Castle guards have been scouring these woods for two days past, searching from criminals of Corona. Sure that if I called one of my men to my aid, they'd only need to cry out once before this building be stormed and you and your pretty maiden be taken into custody."

Growling, Lyle pressed the knife in further. "Then I best shed your blood while I can, shouldn't I?"

"Or," the man eased, "we could come to a deal."

Auric, stepping forward, inquired, "Your price?"

"Twenty pence."

"I can take your life with one swipe, old man."

"A good life, I've lived. Ten pence," he offered. When the brothers seemed hesitant, he affirmed, "Ten pence or leave."

Tossing the ten coins at the man, Auric snapped, "there." Lyle withdrew his blade. The man pleasantly grinned.

"Ah, negotiations never get tiring. Up the stairs," he gestured, jerking his thumb to a door at his left before angrily shouting at the waitress to come and gather the fallen pennies. Rapunzel gazed in horror at the woman who scurried over. Her outfit hardly seemed appropriate, exposing her breasts and too thin to be considered made of an actual cloth. For a moment while she bent over, the woman seemed to make eye contact with her, unabashedly staring as though she were fully clothed. But Rapunzel knew that wasn't possible because of the thick coverings her veil provided her.

Wondering how this woman had not been scorned or reprimanded in any way, Rapunzel immediately turned to the crowd of people all around her for answers. But, like many things recently, she immediately regretted not stifling her curiosity and continuing in blissful ignorance with her day. Everything around her changed in an instant, her original perceptions proving how wrong and horribly innocent they had been in comparison to the monstrous scene reality had unfolded before her eyes.

Lining the edges of the sizeable room were high wooden booths with tattered curtains available to provide privacy that nobody apparently needed. Sitting within these luxurious placements were boisterous and crude men who, if they weren't busy with a drink in their hand, were bent over some woman and publicly taking pleasure in all of her provided delicacies. Rapunzel guffawed at them, her body tensed and her voice locked within her throat, keeping her from screaming out for those women's safety. Based on their positions, it seemed uncomfortable and unwilling but when Rapunzel caught a glimpse of their faces, she became horrified. Not only were they enjoying it, but they were clawing at the men for more, their faces thrown in pleasure as every part of them became exposed to the public eye.

A sick feeling formed in Rapunzel's stomach.

In the middle of the room was a cluster of round tables where the men pawed at the waitresses who passed, some drawing them into their laps and stealing long and sloppy kisses while others snatched glasses of oddly-colored drinks off their trays. Even the dance floor had been made into some variation of an orgy, the space so small that each person's sweating bodies was pressed flush against another's. Without moral conscience or even the minutest display of guilt, a woman got down on her knees and greedily sucked the erect member of a bulky, sitting man.

Again her stomach flipped, nausea threatening that the vomit in her throat might present itself.

She cried out uncontrollably. "No!" The Stabbington brothers simultaneously grabbed a shoulder and shoved her into the door. Rapunzel's eyes caught on the woman again, somehow sure this time she saw her. As she was angrily dragged up the staircase, she became sure what she saw was pity. "No," she pleaded, "Pl-ea-ease!" Tears poured from her eyes like rain from a monsoon. "Why am I here?"

A long tunnel of doorways appeared and like before, grunts and loud moans pierced the air. Lyle and Auric eventually found the one they were looking for, but by the time they'd opened it, Rapunzel was fighting tooth and nail for her freedom. Clutching her wrist, Lyle heatedly tossed her into the room, her sore feet tripping over the extended hem of her dress and landing her on the floor. Auric slammed the door shut.

"Did I not say for you to keep your head down?" Lyle yelled, striding towards her. Bending forward, her ripped the cloth away from her head and yanked her up by her dress. "You'll learn to listen to me, girl, or I swear –"

"Why am I here!"

Anger erupted through him so quickly that Rapunzel could see it flame across his face, turning his skin red and causing his body to shake. He clenched his jaw just before he delivered and hard blow to her face that again knocked Rapunzel to the floor. With one swift movement, her forearm was in his grasp and he twisted it enough to make Rapunzel bite her cheek to keep from screaming out in pain. When her wrist reached the tip of her shoulder blade, Rapunzel could taste the blood flowing like water from a glass into her mouth. Her pride maintained.

Kneeling down to her level, Lyle fisted her hair in his hand and forced Rapunzel's ear sickeningly close to his mouth. In a low voice, Lyle ordered, "You will listen. Right now you will listen, tonight you will listen, tomorrow you will listen, until you die you will listen and obey. Or so help me God, I will come down upon you with a wrath so mighty, you'll taste Death's cold kiss and wake to life with frostbitten lips."

Grunting as he shoved her down, Rapunzel glared up at Lyle and Auric from the floor, massaging the blood back into her arm.

"Get up and heal yourself," Lyle demanded. "I'll be back soon enough." Sweeping from the room, Lyle left a terrified Rapunzel sniveling on the creaking floor. Her eyes, blurred with tears she so strained to retain, were fixed cautiously on Auric. To her, he was no man. He was an animal, a lion with a mane of fire that would attack at any given moment with no predictable movements. And Rapunzel? She was a doe, beautiful and helplessly attacked by the vicious animal king.

Auric leaned against the closed door, eyes equally as set. "Stand up." His voice was hoarse, tone calmer than usual but just as demanding as ever. With excess caution, Rapunzel rose to her wobbling feet. "Take off your frock." Inhaling deeply, Rapunzel's throat grew thick. Sensing her defiance, Auric's face hardened. "Take it off." If the fear hadn't been so great, Rapunzel would have fought back. If the reminder of her most recent punishment wasn't still vexing her back, arm, and throbbing face, she would have spit at him. If she had any other circumstance, Rapunzel would have felt as though she wasn't just submitting to them and obeying their will. But she was stuck there, standing hungry, in pain, and parched, completely acquiescing to what they commanded.

It wasn't easy. With trembling hands and her back to Auric, Rapunzel clumsily unlaced her dress and inch by inch, felt her hate intensifying against them – solidifying like molten lava to stone. With each body part newly exposed, she felt glad she at least had her underdress baring her from his eyes. Even then, his burning gaze made her feel uncomfortable and naked.

"Heal yourself." Remaining completely silent, Rapunzel rapidly began to undo her hair, pulling away certain parts of the elaborately done style that made it just fall apart. The noise of her hair swooshing against the floor increased the tension. She hurried in winding her hair around her waist, shoulder, and face and sang quietly to herself. Through her closed lids, she could see the glow and wished desperately that Auric would disappear. Of all the things she wanted him not to see, this was number one. By the time it ended, she could hear the hitch in Auric's breathing and found herself surprised that he could feel any sort of awe or amazement.

Lyle had been right. He came back fairly quick and ushered two of the nearly nude women from downstairs into the room. Initially Rapunzel had assumed the worst, her eyes widening with remembrance of the disdainful actions the people had performed downstairs. But when Lyle and Auric left and the women tended to Rapunzel – washing her face and hair, applying things to her that would 'enhance her features' – she was pleasantly surprised and even more skeptical. Without fail, the women talked with Rapunzel – one a foreign slave, calling her names like "angel" and "goddess" and applying all sorts of odd titles to her that she felt wholly undeserving of. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not speak. A sort of feeling rushed over her that suffocated all possibilities they had made towards conversation. And as time passed, Rapunzel inferred that they had understood that. One woman keeping a particular avoidance of Rapunzel.

They spent hours working on her. They made her remove her underdress – which she had been primarily in opposition of – and supplemented her with an outfit demanding much more appreciation to her wonderful figure. Without relent, they complimented her beauty and whipped out the phrases Rapunzel began to loathe. Any other time in her life and she would have modestly thanked the person for such a compliment but at that time – when she felt like anything but – the words gnawed abnormally at her soul. The outfit appeared to amplify that effect, too tight and foreign against her bare skin and much, much too small. "Can you loosen it," she breathed, hardly able to catch a breath within its tight hold. But the women replied negatively, putting her in a very negative place.

Rapunzel didn't need to be told to know those brothers had given her that outfit for her personal displeasure.

Heavy, startling knocks sounded against the door. The girls jumped, rushing away from Rapunzel and to the door. The girl who seemed to be avoiding Rapunzel paused at the handle, withdrawing her hand and hurriedly running over to Rapunzel. Sympathetically she whispered, "It'll be okay. It's happened to all of us, goddess. Your divinity will keep you from real chains." Her accent muddled the words a bit, but Rapunzel felt like she understood most of what she had said when the woman rushed away and eased open the door.

"Answer quicker next time!" Auric roughly shoved them out of the room, entering with Lyle in tow.

"All right, angel," Lyle mocked. "Keep your legs shut and obey." Rapunzel, confused, stared at him. He simply smiled in return similar to how he had just before he slit open her cheek days earlier. There was something he knew, like some sort of inside joke to laugh at. "C'mon, Auric."

When they exited the room, their Cheshire grins remained, hovering like an ominous presence over her. It was the prediction of something horrible and Rapunzel could immediately pinpoint what it was when it stumbled into the room, throwing the door shut behind it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Let me just start by saying that this story IS going to have a REAL plot. This isn't just going to be a – and I quote – "disgusting peice of shit" created by my "demented ass." (Great spelling by the way.) Oh yes, if you get what I'm hinting at: I got pmed by a beloved fan! I'm so glad to receive such great **_**thanks**_**! I think I've said it once before now so let me reiterate it again(just in case it's been forgotten): I'm not forcing you to read. Don't like, then Get. Out.**

**Rant aside, I will admit that that wonderful message has brought up a point to my attention that I need to clarify. This is NOT going to be just some story about Rapunzel getting raped. No, I intend for a much deeper plot to set into play that seeds have already been planted for. And I really hope you guys will enjoy cause I'm super-duper excited to write it! :D The story will have many chapters and perhaps a sequel and I intend on making this like a real book so it may or may not go several chapters without smut. As you have seen. **

**Hope you guys like it though (for my real fans 3)! **

**PLEASE REVIEW. Can't stress that enough. I need feedback – good or bad! Just not disrespectful please? All right well, I love you guys! Bye!**

The man was tall and pale, nowhere in comparison with the Stabbington brothers but still several inches above Rapunzel. His mussed up black hair spread out on his chin, a shadow there that formed a certain disheveled appearance. By his clothes, she could tell he was nothing more than a common thug. And yet he inspired a completely rational fear in her that instinctually led her to back up several steps.

"Who are you?"

Seemingly caught in a haze, the man did not respond to Rapunzel. He was so transfixed with her cascading golden hair and unfathomable beauty that his ears would not receive a clap of thunder even if it had been a foot away from him. It was not intentional, merely inevitably. Not to say that he would care if she talked. Women were like animals to him and their words and logic paralleled the nonsensical yapping of a dog.

Finally, a sentence came through him. "They did not lie."

Rapunzel's eyes anxiously fixed themselves on the dark-haired man. He was obviously inebriated, wobbling as he approached her. And the look in his half-lidded eyes did nothing to allay her worries.

"Don't come near me! Who are you?" She tried to push something frightening into her tone, an evil side within her that did not yet exist. And she half succeeded. But the man was nowhere near intimidated. By the array of weapons clinging to his being, she could tell he'd not only been in "sticky situations" before but was prepared for one may it burst through the door. Even drunk the thug appeared ready for a fight.

With each step forward Rapunzel took a step back. Not until she hit the wall, the skin of her arm pressed against the edge of the coarse, wooden headboard, did she realize – once again – she was trapped. Unsurprisingly, her heart thudded in her chest, beating as quickly as a hummingbird's wings.

Seeing something up close – right in front of someone, even – definitely changed a person's perspective on that thing. Rapunzel was no exception to that rule. When the man was merely a few inches from her, towering over her petite form, she became instantly terrified. Her arms, despite the messages she sent to make them shove the man away, remained limps at her sides, only dead weights that prevented her imminent drop to the floor. However, it didn't seem as though her body had a problem moving because it quivered as if she were standing nude in the middle of tundra.

As he stood before her, she caught a whiff of him and inevitably gagged. He was just as odorous as that foul place downstairs. The same bitter stench clung to his being, like sweat and the unfamiliar tang of what consumed the wretched building they'd taken shelter in.

Attempting to prevent the vomit in her throat from inevitably spilling out of her mouth, Rapunzel flattened herself against the wall behind her, turning her head away so that her eyes rested on the prosaic bed and her nose drew in the less crude scents of the room. To her dismay, the position she'd put herself in made her all the more appealing. It emphasized the soft curvature of her neck, the delicate and beautiful features of her face, the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Light played against her smooth flesh in such a way that the man, already driven half-mad with lust, could not resist but to take pleasure in her assets and ravage her neck with his lips, his hands falling to her waist and breasts, breaching Rapunzel's limit.

Without realization or even the slightest thought, Rapunzel's body received a jolt of rejection and she violently thrust the man away from her, crying out as he stumbled back to the floor. For just a moment, she was frozen in awe at what she had just done, eyes registering the sight of man as he gathered himself by the end of the bed and her own arms still outstretched before her. But then, when his flaming face came into view, she comprehended the severity of her actions and – as she always would – tried to run. Just as she had predicted though, he lunged at her with a dexterity not befitting a man of his state and seized her by the ankle right when she had pulled herself halfway across the length of the bed.

"You fucking bitch!" he roared in a tone that communicated the amount of fury held within him.

Surprise momentarily stunned her as he swiftly drew her back to him, the covers she'd bunched up in her hands drawing back and folding over her arms as he flipped her to her back. "No," she grunted, disentangling her hands so that she could fight him off. However, keenly anticipating her actions, the man stretched his body over hers, applying all his weight to hold her down, and gripped her wrists in his hands, pinning them up above her head. Grip tourniquet tight, the thug resumed what she had interrupted, kissing her much more roughly, biting as intensely as he could.

When his lips pressed against her body, the sensation combined with the smell wrenched a disgusted yelp from her throat. His mouth burned across the skin of her throat, his teeth occasionally grazing over the delicate skin there whenever he so pleased to allow them. Rapunzel loathed it entirely. Writhing relentlessly within her, her stomach stoked the fire of unease that had begun to blaze with his actions. Once again the repugnance of a body flattened entirely against hers was driving her to madness. And once again she was forced to concede to the nausea and the loathing and the unreal wish of somehow getting away.

Resorting to pleas, Rapunzel begged halfway between a sob and a scream, hot tears burning down her face. "Get off of me!" He bit down rancorously.

Having decided that using both hands to hold down Rapunzel's wrists was limiting, the man forced the two together, capturing them both in one sizeable hand above her head. Right hand then free, he slowly trailed it down her side, running lightly over the curves of her waist – something Rapunzel could feel through the thin corset outside of her dress. She shivered reluctantly, her skin, in spite of everything, sensitive to such a caress. The level of response increased when his hand rounded her back, reached below and cupped her soft ass. Inside her mind she offered that the tears rocked her body, knowing truly when the shivers turned to deep, core-shaking trembles that it was the way he touched her that brought her to that point and not her own vociferous weeps.

Blood pounded in her ears, thrumming like the drums of war. They signified the same thing, the devastation of something, the ruining of lives, the reluctance to yield and battle. But the difference in that was that some played those drums willingly, marched and fought willingly for a purpose. Rapunzel had no choice. She had neither a say-so nor thoughts to give nor things to be heard. She was forced. She had no desire to be there with a man, whose name she did not know, taking pleasure in something that was hers.

And yet…some part of her cried with lust. Driven, like mad men who've had blood splayed on their faces as their swords plunged through another being, Rapunzel felt the longing grow out of loathing. Most of her knew, understood, that this should not be happening. Most of her morals reigned over the insanity of her predicament. Yet she felt her body craving. It was not her mind that forfeited the reluctance felt naturally towards the vile man on top of her but her body.

Perhaps some part of her needed to cope with the situation to keep the complete and utter rejection from backing her into an insane part of her mind. She liked to think, as his hips began to lustfully grind against hers, that it was a natural effect, an instinctual reaction to survive that she had no control over. After all, she surely couldn't have been the only person to go through this before. Could she?

Heat flushed her face, warmth radiating down to her neck and chest arriving simultaneously with a dark feeling that flourished in her abdomen. Almost without thought, she recognized that feeling. Pure sin, she thought as it bent and split the will of her thoughts between carnality and loathing. It was exactly what had allowed her to indulge in the vulgarities permitted by Auric's hand. Another deep shiver rocked her.

Having been so captivated by her thoughts and the whirlwind of emotions that tore unsympathetically through Rapunzel, Rapunzel had been oblivious to the workings of the man as he fished her breast out from her dress – leaving both of her hands free – and massaged it crudely in his hand. Only when the pleasure snaked through her like a weed that sprouts up and suffocates its neighbors did she become fully aware of her situation, both arms paralyzed over her with anxiety. Involuntarily she gave a willing response, her body moaning and arching of its own accord and leaving Rapunzel to be tormented by her inability to control it. Although she delayed the arrival of other pleasured noises by biting so hard on her cheek that it bled, she knew it would be futile in the end. He'd take her to the brinks as Auric had done and keep her from the ability to thwart the noises she'd dare not make if she wanted to salvage some dignity.

In her ear, the man panted, his lips pressed up at the edge of her jawline, his nose inhaling the sweet, natural scent of her freshly done hair. Although with the situation it had become rumpled and undone, a long trail of gold tangled beneath her and over the bed's edge, Rapunzel sought it out with her hands. Pleasure greeted her – as well as some vain and illusionary comfort – as her fingers wound themselves in the soft strands. It was like a medicine that warded off pain, or at least some of it. And as she shut her eyes, the familiar feel of it helped distract her from the frantic thrusts of his hips, his heavy pants, and her own ragged breaths. Through tears, she prayed with it swathed around her palms, not daring to sing her song in front of the man in fear of how he would react to her hair's luminous reaction. Doing so helped to put her in a near comatose state where she laid there, silent, still – as if she were sleeping with her eyes open – beneath the man and completely unaware of her body's reaction.

The dreamlike condition was lifted just when he climaxed violently against her, the odd stick that probed between her covered thighs and his garments softening to disappearance. Seconds later, the man was off of Rapunzel, allowing her the luxury of actually breathing, her face stained with countless tears, her arms drawing themselves into her chest. Deep in her abdomen, the need remained, craving and thankfully unsatisfied, her pride eternally grateful that it was allowed a break to recover from its past days of destruction. Just as she settled with the thought that the nightmare had finally ended and she could allow herself some peace, the man seized Rapunzel's upper arm, yanking her up to her feet in front of him.

"No," she begged, using all her strength to yank away from him. The motion of her thrust landed her on the bed and in fear of what that might lead to, Rapunzel quickly righted herself, sparing no time despite the dull throbbing that was beginning to set in on various parts of her body. "Please!"

Right when her back turned to him to make a run for freedom, the thug belligerently dug his hands into her waist and hauled her backwards, strength that he didn't seem to possess arriving from his limbs and forcing her to the ground. On the floor, Rapunzel swiftly recovered from the confusion accompanying her fall and – on her hands and knees – struggled to put some distance between her and the man. Nonetheless her attempts were in vain. The thug hastily gathered her up and forced her into a kneeling position in front of him. Logically, Rapunzel's first reaction was to break from the submissive and demeaning position.

"NO," she hollered, tugging away from the hand that had firmly fisted in her flowing golden hair. Not a second had passed before she clawed at it with her own hands. "Don't touch me! You don't want me! You don't this, please! LET ME GO!" The volume of her voice was making her throat rough and her words came through warbled, mixed by her tears and the rush to get it all out fast enough. Despite the irrefutable fact that the man would not change his mind about whatever he had planned for her, Rapunzel sustained the desperate hope that'd he take pity on her and allow her to be free, even help her escape! Maybe he was like one of the thugs she'd met at the Snuggly Duckling and beneath that rough exterior was a kind man who could be appealed to through logic and emotion.

Before she saw it, she felt it, like a prophecy of the physical – and maybe mental – trauma welcomed by her future. The sting bit her cheek and she felt herself stunned to silence, tears welling up in her eyes and joining the countless other that had drenched her swollen, red cheeks. "Now, be quiet," the man seethed, his rage so evident that he spoke through clenched teeth. "'N finish 'is up. I paid good fuckin' money for 'is and I swear," he plucked a tool up from his belt, a lengthy, curved foreign blade, "I'll kill you if y' keep it up."

Dragging in a ragged breath, Rapunzel exhaled a weep, shutting her eyes in miserable resignation to what fate had in store for her. Why me? She couldn't understand it. Had betraying Mother really been such a crime?

The man, after freeing himself from his pants, jerked Rapunzel's head up so that she faced his bulging erection. Rapunzel couldn't have suspected it, that much was made obvious by the horrified look on her face and the wails that broke from her upon meeting the 'sword-limb.' And in some way, the man had intentionally done so for the sole purpose of seeing that look on her face. He enjoyed the hate and despair that danced across her features. It was life that he saw, life that he took. Those faces could never be imitated, he had learned from years of experience, and when he saw them, he couldn't help but feel himself become driven with the need to fuck.

As the sword-limb neared Rapunzel's face, the nauseous feeling in her stomach tripled and developed into something absolutely unbearable. She gagged when it touched her lips and then, seconds later, gagged again when it entered her mouth.

Easing it in intolerably slow, Rapunzel grasped that he was only doing it to further humiliate her reluctant obedience. By the way his eyes were trained on her horrified expression; she knew he was the lion and she, the doe. Nothing would please the sadistic man more than to watch her bleed out slowly and painfully as her life drained away into the spilt blood on the floor. She screwed her eyes shut against the tears, gagged when there seemed to be no space left in her mouth to accommodate such a large man. There was no escaping it. Every part of her she'd want it to stay away from was crushed up against it, tasting its offensiveness as well as she suffered the vicious hate pent up within her.

Nails digging too deep into the man's wrists for him to enjoy his bought pleasure, the thug removed them – with great, necessary force – and placed one on his hardened shaft, the other behind her back. With one hand, the thug captured Rapunzel's shaking fist and pumped his shaft intoxicatingly, indulging in the intense pleasure she provided. Using his other hand, he guided Rapunzel's head to follow her hand, moving in perfect synchronization. Her tongue sustained its stagnant position but that did not make the situation any less divine. All he needed to spill his seed was her looks. They provided the pleasure her inexperience lacked.

Grunting and groaning loudly, he abruptly demanded, "Remove your dress." As habit would have it, Rapunzel disobeyed him, only continuing her actions because both of his hands enforced them. She maintained her refusal to budge even after he said it a second and a third time, only slightly experiencing fear at hearing his tone inflate with anger when he roared it a fourth. "Remove it, you bitch!" Caught in a flurry of emotion, the man impulsively thrust his hips forward, his cock jamming so far into her mouth that its tip reached the back of her throat. Rapunzel coughed and screamed out, her hand delivering a punch to the man's abdomen as a weak mean of revenge that did nothing but aggravate him worse.

Jerking away her hand, the thug violently pumped his cock into her mouth, his hand tilting up her head so that her face was in perfect view. She thrashed wildly, her throat and mouth too filled to allow any air into her lungs. It didn't help that her neck was craned too awkwardly for comfort and her jaw had begun to feel sore from the brutal thrusts that forced it to open wider. Any noises she made were muffled and for that the man seemed grateful, a broad grin expanding across his face. Until he was finished – exploding vilely into Rapunzel's mouth and spilling down her throat – he managed to somehow keep Rapunzel under some variation of control. Capturing one of her arms and bending her hand until her wrist threatened to break seemed to be his most effective method.

Fortunately, Rapunzel was released just in the nick of time, collapsing to the floor as she gasped wildly for air, inhuman noises tearing from her like they would tear from one on her deathbed. She wheezed there for a few minutes while the thug guffawed and climbed into bed, throwing her hair to the floor behind her. Nearly instantly he released snores that signified he'd thankfully taken to sleep.

Traumatized by the experience she'd just gone through, Rapunzel's stiff and trembling body sought an immediate escape from everything – the man, the scene, the disgusting taste in her mouth. Alas, she was sure that she'd be stuck in that hell hole until morning and, in response to such a revelation, crawled quickly across the room, as far from those things as she could get. The tears that had silently trickled down her cheeks and off her chin to the floor, left behind a trail on the wood floor. In the midst of her mindset though, she hardly even noticed she had been crying. All she could tell of herself was that she was moving reflexively – thoughtlessly, an instinct that remained when she had left her body. Because in truth, Rapunzel was no longer within herself, she was merely floating over the room, a soul subject to watching itself be tortured relentlessly and unjustly. Perhaps she had died and gone to Hell. Surely she did not deserve such an immense punishment.

Against the wall, Rapunzel curled into herself. Behind her knees, her face disappeared, thick tendrils of golden hair falling around her body, closing like a curtain around her body and arms as they pressed her knees into her chest.

Hours might have passed before Rapunzel's soul returned to its dirtied cage. That did not alter the fact that she had neither moved from her position nor succumbed to sleep. She found, through paralyzing paranoia and the never-ending playbacks her mind forced upon her, that her mind was too tightly wound to slip away to her dreams. All she could do was wonder when it would happen next, or see it happen again. Those sick hands roving her body, the nauseating taste of a man in her mouth. It wasn't like she was reliving it. No, it was her in that moment again and again, her screams burning flames of reluctance in her throat and her hands cramped and clamped above her head like a butterfly's wings stretched and pinned by needles. The mental pain doubled in intensity beside the physical.

More than ever, she felt her heart clench with hate for the brothers. They had done that to her. They'd taken her from that life and seduced him with the crown. Rapunzel's breathing hitched. But he'd chosen to leave her. Clarity evaded her when she had fallen in love with him. She'd allowed herself to be deceived, turned away from her mother! Her sweet, loving mother who'd tried to warn her. Her dear, caring mother who'd, without a doubt, never see her again. Remembering how quickly she aged, Rapunzel felt her throat grow thick with suppressed tears. Without Rapunzel, soon, she'd be dead. Conceiving Rapunzel, mother had told her numerous times, had been a miracle all on its own. Being renewed with youth by her newborn had been an even greater one. But now, there would be none to follow… And soon enough her entire old life – Pascal, her mother, her dress, the tower – they'd all be gone.

Something detestable then took hold of Rapunzel's heart – a new hate. It pulsed and grew, a black seed watered by the moon. The Sun had set within her, she could tell, because suddenly, Rapunzel's hatred directed itself down a new path, to a new being. For the first time, she felt her hate wholeheartedly burn at even the name of Eugene.


	8. Chapter 8

**Oh, oh, oh. I am a bad BAD BAD author. I am so sorry for the late update, my life has just been SO hectic lately. Please, please, please forgive me and I hope the smut from last chapter can work as a leftover apology cake! I love you guys (I'm so ashamed…) REVIEW! Bye :|**

**Also please excuse my grammar mistakes. I did NOT check it. I am human and make mistakes. Please don't hate me!**

Eugene felt as though he was at a dead end. And maybe it was because he was, well, _at a dead end_.

Seven days had gone by since she'd been taken. Seven whole entire days had begun and ended and begun and ended since Rapunzel had been placed in the hands of the Stabbington Brothers by his own mistake of expecting anything more of them than their naturally conniving ways. And yet in those seemingly length days, Eugene Fitzherbert had gotten nowhere fast, not even able to _stumble_ upon a clue that might lead him to her.

He could make no sense of it. From birth, he'd been graced with an eye keen at detecting secrets and deceits – whether it had been from a simple white lie to a hidden knife to a buried body. This special gift of his had proven useful ample times, getting him as far as he could get on the negative spectrum of people and things. And, when immersed in the world of thieves and thugs, it didn't exactly hinder him from making any positive – at the time – advances. Hence, how he ended up with the Stabbington brothers. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't exactly averse to their offered employment but they'd sought him out. They were an exclusive group from the start, a literal in-the-family enterprise and when they heard of his astute awareness to the faults in plans and people, they wanted him. He possessed a unique trait that they lacked and, for their own personal achievements, they bent their rules of exclusivity.

Left with little choice, and little reluctance, Eugene – on the terms of vast wealth – became seduced by their offerings and accepted their proposal. From that day on, he'd been their magnifying glass in detection. If they needed someone, they found them. If they needed the truth from someone, they had it. And it was all thanks to Eugene.

That was why he was so perplexed as to why he couldn't find any trace of them. Over the time they'd spent together, he had caught onto their mistakes, learned their tells (the few that they had), and knew what messes they'd inevitably leave behind for him to discover and clean up. For _seven_ _days_ he had scoured the woods and for _seven days_ he'd been unable to even catch a glimpse of their presence, not even so much as a crumpled bush to guide him on his way.

It was suffocating. Knowing that somewhere not too far from him, she was being tortured in unthinkable ways and he couldn't even find a trace of the barbaric and clumsy fools keeping her drove him mad. Eugene, dipping his hands into the stream in front of him, splashed some water on his face, wiping it with his sleeves and hands as if he could refresh his mind and rub the answer into his brain. For a moment, he just kept his hands over his eyes and sighed deeply into his palms, feeling his body become overwhelmed with exasperation and fury. The physical toll it took on Eugene to look without finding plus the added pressure of what might happen if he didn't find anything was outstanding. The weight on his shoulders had become literal and weighed him down to a hunching form. It didn't help either that daylight was his only means of searching and it seemed, as of late, that the sun was not in his favor.

At his shoulder, recovering very nicely, Pascal chirped into Eugene's ear. Eugene, disconnecting his hands from his face and dropping them into his lap, sent over a hopeless look at Pascal. The green chameleon frowned at him, his body turning the same solemn shade of blue as Eugene's vest.

"I know buddy, I know. But I'm going to find her." He reassuringly patted Pascal with his index finger, putting under the chameleon's head and forcing his chin up. With much more passion, he added, "_We're_ going to find her."

As if forced, the chameleon chirped up a half-way optimistic response and Eugene returned it with his own second-lasting smile. Releasing another sigh, Eugene gazed away at the sky, noting the already darkening blue above him. Today he didn't mind as much that daylight wore out seemingly quicker than usual. The exhaustion was unbearable and with a quick scoop up of water into his wine sack, Eugene stood and turned in direction of a place suitable for spending the night.

After a couple of minutes of meandering around the woods he'd gotten to know so well while resisting arrest, Eugene recognized an area that he'd used several times, blockaded well by a cluster of trees. It provided cover and simultaneous comfort by the convenient slope of the trees and the perfect opportunity to lay back and protect the few things he'd taken from Rapunzel's tower to survive. Although a tavern would have been the preferred option, the closest one was nearly a day's walk away and Eugene was not ignorant enough to be unaware of the price over his head. That place was not only a place filled with thugs, whores, and drunkards but every single one of them had a problem with Eugene. He and the Brothers had duped them all at least once and the only thing that saved his sorry ass against the well-built men was the horrendous size and reputation the Stabbington brothers' had. Not even retarded fools dared to spill a drop of their drink on the brothers' clothes and that was because they were terrifying.

Now, having betrayed the brothers', lost all forms of protection, and living with at least a hundred vendettas for his head, Eugene could not risk being anywhere near those people. A moment after stepping into that building and Eugene would be either decapitated or burning in the woods before the whorehouse. The mental image of that happening to him made him shudder and nearly immediately, he thrust the thoughts away into a dark corner of his mind. In no way was that aiding him in his mission to relax.

Reclining his body against the tree, Eugene placed the black sack at his side and shut his eyes, attempting at sleep. It did not come easily. The images of Rapunzel's face kept playing in his head over and over, forming stressful kinks in his neck. All he could see was her beautiful face, optimistic smile, sun-kissed golden hair and he was lost in a world of guilt. Behind the black of his eyelids, Eugene could see nothing but _her_. It tore him apart to wonder what she might look like then. No doubts they'd hurt her. He had already seen her blood spilt and Pascal confirmed that her fiery and independent spirit would not be simply forced into a position of submission. So what was happening?

When he'd succumbed to his dreams, Eugene did not know. All he could tell was that suddenly he was consumed by the same world that had invaded his mind for the past few days. Perhaps it was the guilt of losing Rapunzel and this dream was meant to invigorate him and refresh his zeal to find her. But he couldn't be, in any way, sure. Oddly enough the dream was always the same, beginning and ending on the same scenes, his awareness equally as ignorant. But this time when he woke up, he knew without doubt that he was dreaming. The way it began triggered the memory and the fear of the unknown scurried away with the blooming of the flower around him.

It took a while, as always, but when the seamless edges of the petals pulled away from each other, he felt no need to wait before he left. Eugene rose to his feet and stepped away from the glowing, golden world and entered the much less desirable one of rotting trees and dark woods. Why he would choose to conjure up such a terrible place when he should be relaxed and having happy dreams, Eugene was clueless. But once again, maybe it was his guilt taking a stab at him.

"What am I doing here?" he thought aloud as he examined his surroundings. There was no light to be found and yet it did not resemble nighttime. The place was filled with various forms of life but without fail, each plant and tree was entirely black, rotting, or dead. It was like a wasteland of death and with a quick glance downwards, his solemn blue vest suddenly looked alive, optimistic, and out of place in these woods. "What is going on?"

Taking a cautious step forward, Eugene's foot cracked over the numerous dead leaves and sticks beneath his feet. It was eerie in the menacing silence and that was when Eugene noticed, not even the sound of wind blowing through the leaves could be heard. Not that that would make this place any better but still, it would just aid this world in appearing slightly more normal.

The urge to call out for someone rose. It was what always happened around that time. No one ever really answered, but he always yelled out for someone to hear. For someone to perhaps answer back.

Hesitating before he resumed the nearly ritualistic pattern of his dream, Eugene ended the battle within him and succumbed to the routine. What harm could it do? "Hello?" He paused for a few moments and then repeated again, "Hello?"

In the sinister silence, Eugene felt as though yelling was out of place. It was too quiet to yell. Talking seemed like it would suffice in alarming someone a mile away of his presence. It was like yelling in the middle of the night while alone. Although nobody can hear and no one will wake, it still appears as if someone is waking up and someone is being disturbed. Like the night, this place naturally assumed a quiet role. In light of this, Eugene wondered if that was why it was so quiet there. Perhaps people were there but they, like he, felt the tense silence that ominously hung over their shoulders.

"Hello!"

Patiently, he waited. This dream could potentially reveal something beneficial to him. While in the real world, Eugene had been exhausted and possibly missed something detrimental to his quest to find his love. On the other hand, while in this world, things his eyes had registered and his mind had not could be revealed. All his problems could disappear. It had happened before, so why couldn't it happen again? At least that's what Eugene thought of it.

A piercing scream split the silence. It was bloodcurdling in and of itself, sending Eugene into terrified shudders. If not for the fact that it sounded threatening, this scream had been a perfect revival of the memories of his former coworkers' fearsome escapades. Thousands of women screaming as they were pillaged and plundered, wives crying out as their husbands were humiliated and mutilated before their very own eyes, daughters screaming just before they burned to death or were bled by a tear to their delicate throats. The resuscitation of his past instigated a battle to commence between the two halves of himself. His selfish half knew the only safe way was to let this roll over and off his shoulders as he had done countless times before, but his selfless half argued that that was exactly what got them into this mess.

What a fine argument his selfless half had because by only a flicker of Rapunzel's face in his mind did Eugene unhesitatingly decide. Unexpectedly, he felt a surge of courage consume his being and send him dashing forward like a hero to the rescue. The trees blurred by, his hands grabbing at those closest to him as if they would propel him forward faster and farther than his legs could. He didn't know where to go or why he chose to be the knight now. Maybe it was some half-assed guilt attempt to atone for his sins. But either way he had set out on his mission to save this person from whatever peril they faced, no matter how treacherous. Only when he arrived at his destination, shock bursting through him with enough intensity to immediately set him on freeze, did he comprehend the very danger he'd be facing. And when the long golden tresses spilt out onto the dirty and dead soil, he could feel nothing save the sharp pang of remorse and agony pierce his being.

Time froze for him. He watched her, at the edge, get thrown down and covered by the Brothers. He watched her, without true understanding, get beaten and stripped while she cried out and wept in despair. He watched her and did nothing else because the surprise threw him and nothing, but the air in his lungs and the blood in his veins, moved enough for him to spare her from fate.

"_HELP_! Please, please, please. Don't touch me! You don't want me! You don't want this, please! LET ME GO!"

Her eyes were swollen, her body fighting vehemently against the Brothers, continuing without noticeably delay even as they transformed into one disheveled black-haired man.

"_Monster!_" she screamed, "_MONSTER!_" His hands grasped at her breasts, his lips carving a red and swollen trail down her throat. The reluctance was so apparent in her that her body convulsed with a noticeable gag, her face turning away so that she wasn't facing the man's. Unintentionally, her face turned to Eugene's. Although her eyes were shut, and although she wasn't real, Eugene felt an undoubtedly horrendous thud beat where his heart was. It was painful, like being driven through by a dull-edged sword. The emotions flooded him. Countless ones attacked him and he could almost feel his soul writhing against his body as if it were trying to break free and escape the terrible tortures it suffered inside its shell. When her teary green eyes opened, her face crumpled and everything he felt, pardon his guilt, spread across her face. Anger, resentment, sorrow, suffering. "Eugene," she brokenly whispered, her hand weakly reaching out to him.

"Rapunzel," he murmured, hot tears flowing down his cheeks. His attempt to suppress them burned at his throat, making it near impossible to speak. Eugene, unable to stand the terror of her suffering any longer, reached out and took a step forward. "_Rapunzel_!"

Without warning, the world began to dissolve into thick flames before him, burning from the edges of his vision as fire consumed a piece of parchment. Her startled face was the last thing to vanish, enabling it to scorch into his mind, creating a new pain to live with. It would unquestionably remain with him to the day he died, even if he managed to somehow find and save Rapunzel before then.

The campfire, somehow managing to maintain its ferocious life, was the first thing he saw when he woke. Its flamed licked up and inward in perfect correlation to the ones that stole him from his dream. Their similarity was of no surprise to Eugene. He'd thought the devil himself had raised hell through those flames and stole his way into Eugene's mind, creating that horrendous nightmare.

It was so powerful – waking from such a vision – that Eugene had to steady his breathing, and calm his fast beating heart. To his surprise, it returned to its constant beating quickly despite being so utterly broken. Just the image of her lying there, submitted to the atrocities that she was undeniably facing under the care of the Brothers, was enough to shatter Eugene's soul into irreparably fragments. As in the dream, he could feel it writhe and press against him. Despite being outwardly immobile, Eugene was suffering trials worse than the executions of hell within. And his soul, unable to bare the misery of it, kicked and bounced against his chest and skin, desperately fighting for a release it would not obtain. Although its prayers to rid his shell of the vague amount of pure life left in him were tempting, Eugene would not abandon Rapunzel to such a ghastly fate. If he must suffer for her smile's return, he would. For what he had done, not only to Rapunzel, but to all of the victims he'd ignored, he deserved it. God was punishing him for his sins and he would strive hard to work through it, maintaining only to earn salvation and love from his beloved.

While Eugene lay there, breathing in the dense smoke and simultaneously cool night air, he relaxed his rigid muscles and went to lie on his side. No intentions were going to be made at sleep because, frankly, Eugene had had enough of that, but he would attempt to achieve some semblance of harmony. The fire served as a point of interest to him in that. It mesmerized him and the familiar noise of thousands of comfortable nights and gatherings (such as the one with Rapunzel) helped ease the pain of his current predicament. It drew him away, it let him breathe, it –

A noise jolted Eugene away. It was faint, a snap of twig far too unnatural to not be heeded and just loud enough that it could only be a human who braved nearing such a ferocious fire. Animals were smart with that, and fire oft functioned as ward against them. Unsheathing his knife and charging up to his knees with the speed of lightning, Eugene eyes' caught sight of a woman, snatching up his supplies and dashing away.

"_Fuck!_" he grumbled and hurriedly got to his fast, pursuing her and leaving a grumpily woken Pascal behind. "Hey," he called; his voice too loud for the still night. "_Hey_!" Eugene growled.

She whimpered audibly in fear, her pale form betraying her in the dark of the night. Inexperienced, far too thin, and plainly weak, the woman was no match for a driven Eugene. He easily caught her and, with a little fight, had her pinned to the ground beneath him, sniveling and sobbing like child. Moments passed of her wrestling beneath him, arms weakling shoving at his shoulders in a vain hope that they'd budge, before Eugene realized the woman was stark naked.

"Please," she begged, "please, please don't hurt me!"

Grimacing, he climbed off of her and snatched the bag away, watched her scurry back against a tree and curl into a ball, hiding her body.

"Please, I beg you, don't hurt me! I couldn't, I couldn't…" her muffled voice trailed off into hysterical tears and Eugene felt almost obliged to do something. Something had obviously happened to her. What that was, one could only leave to his imagination.

First, he scoured the contents of his bag, assured himself that everything was still there, then he turned an eye at the woman who remained curled into herself, her face and shoulders masked by her frizzed, brown hair. Cautiously, he approached her, hand extended and head courteously turned so he would witness anything inappropriate.

Softly, he spoke, "hey…" She cringed. "Hey," he backed away and removed his vest. "I won't hurt you, I promise." Shrugging off the blue cloth from his arms and tossing it to the ground just before her feet, he attempted to once again reassure her. "See? There. That's something you can cover yourself up with…" Head still turned, he waited for a sound. "Look, I swear I won't hurt you, I just want to help."

Some strange conviction had overcome Eugene. It was an inclination to do right for someone, in some way. That dream had opened his eyes. He needed to redeem himself of his past peccadillos. If helping strangers was his only current option, then so be it. Anyways, he'd be working to get back on God's side and progress was all that mattered. Obtaining one way or the other didn't matter.

The woman, having seemed to obtain some trust for the complete stranger he was, timidly reached out and plucked up the vest, closing it over a good portion of her body. With her petite size, it was not surprising and finally, understanding that it was safe to look, Eugene hesitantly glanced over his shoulder before completely turning his body and offering her some of his clothing and food back at his campfire.

Initially, she was quiet and withdrawn, hardly making eye contact with Eugene. But eventually, she came to walk a good ten feet behind him when he explained sincerely that he was alone and would not hurt her in any way. Not even a minute had passed before they reached the fire. The walk was so tense with unfamiliarity that he moved with a swift stride towards his camp, trying frantically to make it end as soon as possible. It was his makeshift solution for the moment. Quite frankly, he had no idea how to approach the situation.

An angry Pascal greeted them when they returned. Furiously he chirped, pacing back and forth over a raised tree root, gesturing wildly to the half-naked woman. "I know, I know, I'm sorry," Eugene said, dropping his hand so that Pascal could climb up onto it. The chameleon dashed up to his shoulder, resting in the usual spot, just beneath his ear. "I should've told you that I was going somewhere, but I didn't exactly have a choice."

Furthering deeper into his explanation to the animal as to why he didn't enlighten or carry him before abruptly speeding away after the supposed thief, Eugene failed to notice the look of peculiarity swelling over the woman's face. She, mixed between the feelings of utter devastation and complete confusion, could not understand the situation unfolding before her. Not only was he having an intricate conversation with an animal but he was so deeply immersed in convincing the tiny lizard that he – she was betting – would not notice whether she had slipped away or not.

Overwhelmed by the past few days occurrence, terrified out of her wits, and starving so badly that it felt like she'd caught an illness, the girl burst out into loud and uncontrollable sobs. Eugene, having been just recently caught within a nightmare tormented with the dreadful sound, immediately had his attention captured by her. Partially because they were strangers, and partially because Eugene had never developed an actual skill in the act, Eugene did not know how to console the girl. Obviously she had been swindled in some manner. Roaming in thug-infested woods naked didn't exactly seem to be her choice and it wouldn't be a smart one if it was. So he attempted to do as he thought Rapunzel would have done. He stayed where he was and asked her what was wrong.

Ten minutes must've passed before she answered. In the time, Eugene and Pascal patiently waited for her response, half full of doubt that she'd even heard them. When she spoke, the words barely came out but Eugene felt rude, especially considering that whatever it was that happened, it must have been awful, and so he strained his ears to hear. And, in a bittersweet moment of discovery, Eugene found that his prayers and fears had been answered. She'd just finished the surface-skimming description about how she'd been beat, raped, and then stripped of all her belongings when she described the two, fair and red-haired men who did it. Initially, Eugene had thought it was a bizarre coincidence, and tried to brush off his shoulders that he could have missed something and that it may actually be them. But then, when she proceeded into the fear she had for the beautiful and horrified young woman traveling with them, Eugene lost all control and froze fully. He had found the missing piece in his quest for Rapunzel.


	9. Chapter 9

**Six pages. That's not a lot. But it's a lot. **

**Sorry, I haven't posted recently. I will have a chapter posted up again tomorrow to make amends for all the wrongs I have done against you poor, poor readers who have been waiting for so long! I love you guys.**

**Oh, and I have to confront this: I do get a lot of hate for writing what I'm writing. But I have a 'don't like—don't read' policy. And that is still an option for you to take. I can take that and personally I don't give a rat's heinie if you don't like it. What I will not take is you publicly declaring your hatred of my story in my reviews and going so far as to be offensive rather than respectful with your opinions. It makes me a little angry; I'm not going to lie. But I'm not going to sink to your level and call you a coward for posting it anonymously so that I can't find you or reply. No, I'm definitely not that kind of person (: **

**But anyways, it's there for those who like gossip. I'm not taking it down because a review is a review, not matter how horribly mean. And it was horribly mean, and my feelings were hurt. But that does not mean I'm going to stop my story! I love this baby and she is going to grow up and be one hot mama. **

**All right, here you guys go! Love you~**

**UPLOAD DATE: January 18, 2013.**

She woke gasping as if she had risen to the surface of an ocean after nearly drowning. Her heart was pounding, each beat like lightning sending a shuddering through her accompanied by the loud noise. Rapunzel's mind was racing, disbelief, ultimate betrayal, and consequential hate that she had dreamt of the very demon she'd been desperately trying to avoid, swirling within her like a tornado. Everything confused her, the room spinning and her lungs not cooperating with her to successfully draw a relaxing breath in.

_Eugene_, she reluctantly thought, his name reviving the calming winds of her confusion. _Eugene,_ she thought again, without choice or knowledge that it would slip out, hating herself for allowing his name to come up again. _Eugene!_ The passion of it was intensifying and the hate was creating a fury in her so powerful that she did not know if she could or wanted to control it. With the repetition, something dark and twisted in her thundered a command that she should kill him if she ever saw him again, but not before she reaped vengeance upon him for all the wrongs he'd done to her first. And initially that scared her, left her wondering whether she would end up as cruel and demented as the demonic Stabbington Brothers. But as she let it seep in, as she allowed it to root itself and solidify in the crevices of her once entirely pure and innocent being, the idea became more appealing. Visually, the image of her hurting him became enticing and physically, the feeling of her delivering down the same wrath that had been bestowed upon her became satisfying, as if she was healing a wound. And as when she healed herself, the sensation of a thousand butterflies covering her being presented itself and she felt relieved and intriguingly content. The want to wound all those who had irredeemably wounded her corrupted her soul, and Rapunzel suddenly felt herself changing in a way that she did not negatively perceive. Burning them with the power of the sun was something she was able to do. _So_, she thought, _if you have a gift, why waste it?_

Seconds later her senses reigned in. The thunderstorms and raging oceans calmed, the clouds and swirling winds in her mind ceased, the rage subsiding into a much less intense fury. Through the darkness, the sun broke and she could see clearly – and terrifyingly – the way her thoughts had alarmingly transformed. _No_, Rapunzel's mind raged. _I will not let myself become like them! No matter how much I hate _him_, I can't let this happen to me!_ _No!_

Shakily, she gathered herself up from where she'd fallen asleep on the ground and truly pondered over why she had become like that and why she'd had that dream. Since the night she'd first bloomed from that flower, every night since had become plagued with the dreams of that place, dreams where she'd constantly return to that world and be submitted to the same atrocities she'd faced during that day. On the day they'd encountered that woman, she'd relived it, on the day she'd been forced to watch a man be beaten, she'd relived it. Even last night, she'd relived the same experience of the day with a much, much worse twist to the already harmful events. _He_ was there and what made it worse was that he actually looked as if he…cared. That was when Rapunzel knew it was a dream. The real _him_ would have laughed and most likely did what most thieves had done and stolen anything he could have and joined in.

_Intolerable swine_, Rapunzel bitterly thought, some sorrow lingering in her. Never would she admit that it was because of _him_ but deep within the corners of her mind, she recognized that the fact that he could never actually care like that for her struck her hard. Her chest ached like someone had slammed it with an iron rod. 'Heartache is a terrible thing,' Rapunzel remembered Mother Gothel telling her once. 'It is like being branded against the soul, leaving a scar that'll never heal.' Specifically, Rapunzel recalled inquiring upon if she'd ever been in love to deal with such grief and watching Mother Gothel look away, for once showing a fleck of solid emotion. There was a look in her eyes that should have ticked her off right from the start that her family was never meant for love. In her cold irises, she saw a whole hatred against someone who very well might have been her father. That thought was substantiated when Mother Gothel replied 'Just don't ever fall for love. It is cold and cruel and no one but princesses in fairy tales ever find it.' With a frosty tone, Gothel turned to Rapunzel and told her, 'Not even one as sun-kissed as you.'

Then, Rapunzel did not heed her warning. Now, she despised herself for ever dismissing it. Mother always knows best and her lessons apparently would ring through her mind until the blessed day of her escape, or the blessed day of her death. Somehow the latter felt more likely to arrive first which scared her out of her wits. Not that she'd been much in them recently anyways.

Forcing herself to have a sane head and test for her current safety, Rapunzel hesitantly peeked up onto the bed to see if the vile thug was still there. When she saw his dirtied black boots and the unwound posture he was in as he slept on his stomach, Rapunzel's body trembled with anxiety and gut-wrenching fear. At any moment he could wake and she could be forced to experience the disgusting acts of last night all over again. And having the memory so present in her mind made that option simply impossible. Immediately, escape emerged at the surface of her mind. It was like an angel ready to rescue her from the waters of despairs, plucking her up from the dangerous sea and carrying her away to the familiar place of her home.

In their past days of walking, Rapunzel noted – as best she could through the haze fermented by all the things she'd suffered and witnessed – the path they'd traveled, all the way from the shore on the beach to the beaten down tavern they were staying in. If she could somehow manage to just get outside, Rapunzel could use the stream as her ally and try and get across it, finding a new way back to her tower. If Mother Gothel was still alive, she could quickly heal her, apologize, and resume her now fractured life. A feeling in her told her it was still very early in the day. Unfortunately it was all she could rely on considering the room she was in had absolutely no windows, but despite that she was still very sure. Unlike the other nights, she didn't feel _as_ rested as she did in the few hours of sleep she captured. And that must've been a good thing. It may mean that the brothers were still asleep! Rapunzel naively brushed over the fact of how early they rose in the morning. Almost always they were up an hour or so before sunrise, however she let her hope muffle the voice of reason, advising her against the risk.

Skimming rapidly over all the chances she was taking and the consequences there would be if she got caught, Rapunzel prayed pleadingly that the tavern owner and all the women who entertained the building yesterday were catching some rest or wouldn't notice her if she chanced upon encountering them. That could lead to disaster and the part of her that felt utter pity for those women didn't want any of them to get hurt for her own happiness.

"Please God, _please_," she whispered in a voice so low she didn't think an angel who placed his ear right beside her lips could hear, "help me escape. I can't stay here anymore. I can't suffer like this forever." Feeling her voice becoming clogged with emotion, Rapunzel suppressed it into a lump in her throat trying to avoid the thug waking and catching her in her only chance to escape. If she didn't get out now, she feared that she never would. "God, you've been the light of my life, please give me the strength to leave, please give me the strength to keep going. Please don't let me get caught." Pleadingly, Rapunzel finished her prayer with a slightly louder amen and silently unclasped her sweating hands. It had to be now. _Now or never_, she thought.

Rapunzel slowly, so cautiously slowly, shifted her position, getting up onto the balls of her feet. It felt like a success already but her heart still pounded anxiously. She continued ascending until she was finally standing, _towering_ over the thug who'd stood so tall over her last night. For a moment, she enjoyed the position over him, feeling powerful at his vulnerability. His life seemed to be hers to take, a privilege granted by her stance alone. But knowing that if she spent any more time relishing the supremacy she had gained, she could get caught, Rapunzel kept moving forward, tiptoeing her way to the door. The wooden knob was bent and chipped in several places, the effects of extreme use and poor crafting. It made Rapunzel wonder how many girls had suffered here before? She placed her hand on it, turned the handle, and lightly pulled back, cringing at the creak and, when the door successfully opened, smiling almost to the point of tears at the Stabbington brothers' stupidity. _They hadn't locked it,_ she triumphantly cried, easing the door open more and more, _they didn't lock it!_ Her grin intensified when the door remained silent the rest of the way and held no large red-headed men behind it. In fact the hallway was silent and empty, not even a noise from the rooms rousing any suspicions. Because of that, Rapunzel felt torn. Did that make this easier or more difficult? Loud people would make it easier to cover a noisy mistake but it simultaneously increased her chances of getting caught.

Only a sliver of hesitation, Rapunzel carried on, hair gathered around her shoulders and draped over her arms. In no time at all she was down the hall. No people or noises were there to cause problems and the door at the end was slightly open, revealing a staircase that she remembered very clearly. Just a few hours ago, she had been dragged up it. It was something kind of hard to forget. Unfortunately, Rapunzel remembered that it led right into a hot spot of people and while from here, she heard nothing, Rapunzel wasn't going to be so easily fooled into assuming its emptiness. In a hurry, she gently opened the door enough for her to slip through and gingerly eased down the stairs. If a stair creaked, she skipped over it with her other foot to the one below it. Her hands pressed hard against the walls beside her to keep her steady and her ears remained vigilant to any sign that people were down there. Not until she reached the second to last step, did she hear even a word from the lower floor.

The moment voices came into earshot, she started and became petrified to the point of her considering running back up the stairs. If the brothers were down there, she didn't know what they would do. Killing her wasn't an option, she was merchandise. But with her being able to heal herself and their obvious disregard for her well-being, they would beat her till she was almost dead and that seemed good enough.

At the end of the stairs there was another door, this time closed. What laid behind it was a mystery, obliging Rapunzel to do as best as she could to assure that there was no risk of a surprise. Attentively, she watched the shadows beneath the sizeable gap at the bottom and pressed her ear against the cool wood. Inaudible words were being exchanged back and forth between an unidentifiable number of people. From where she stood, it didn't sound like any more than ten but Rapunzel knew that it only took one for her to get caught.

Her stomach churned apprehensively. She was so wound up that when she heard the floor creak from the other side, she involuntarily jumped back making a little noise of her one to which the voices on the other side responded by hushing immediately.

A gruff voice yelled, "We're closed till midday!" There was silence and then the voice mumbled something that was followed by a lot of movement. When the voices were gone, Rapunzel was damn near sure she had never stood so still in her entire life. The thought _I'm caught_ repeated incessantly in her mind, heightening with emotion like a crescendo constructed by her fear. However, after she waited another couple of long and tense minutes, imagining noises in the ringing silence, she realized they must have all gone to go clear out whoever had come or returned to whatever chores the workers had. She was just taking comfort in the assumed knowledge when the door in front of her was yanked open loudly. Cool night air and candlelight spread across Rapunzel's skin and without a moment's hesitation, Rapunzel let out a little yelp of fear.

Because Rapunzel so desperately needed to escape, she lunged forward, quickly covering the woman's mouth with her hands, knotting the other deeply in the woman's hair as the man had done the night before to her. Not surprisingly, she gained immediate control over the insufficiently dressed woman, but having no idea what to do with her, Rapunzel just stared for a moment, stunned by her own actions.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, panicking and scrambling to calm the growingly hysterical woman. "I need to get out of here," she coarsely whispered, tears welling up in her eyes when the woman wasn't understanding. "Please, help me." Suddenly, Rapunzel recognized the woman's face. It was the same woman from below, who had stared at her curiously and then proceeded to helping her into her dressings before the thug had come in. "You – I remember you! I was here yesterday, those two men – they captured me! I need you to help me, they're going to hurt me – I need your help. Please," Rapunzel beseeched as the woman appeared to pity her, finally gaining some recognition. "Please, help me."

Eyes shutting and opening seventeen times before she gave her answer, the woman nodded. Rapunzel breathed deeply, face crinkling and stomach fluttering because someone would _finally _help her. _I might actually be free_!

"Thank you," Rapunzel cried through a whisper, "thank you!" She gently uncapped the woman's mouth and the woman breathed deeply as well, quickly grabbing Rapunzel's hand.

"Quickly, come with me. But be _quiet_."

Gathering up her hair over her arms and shoulders again, Rapunzel allowed herself to be led by the woman hurriedly through the empty main room and then through a door that led to a dark hall, three doors lining its sides. The last door on the right was where the woman guided Rapunzel. It led out into a stable where windows showed the dark night sky becoming illuminated by the morning sun.

"Thank you," Rapunzel whispered, this time sure she could at least whisper something. Horses could never tell of what they would see here. "Thank you for helping me."

With a curt nod, the woman replied, "Only because I've been you. No one should suffer that fate at a man's gain." Her voice was tight and Rapunzel could tell that she understood her pain. All the suffering she'd been put through must have been nothing compared to what this woman had gone through. At least someone was helping Rapunzel escape. This woman probably never had that chance. Silence fell over them again and the woman released Rapunzel's hand, gesturing for her to stand behind a stall door. Moving without thought, Rapunzel peeked through the bars at the woman. She watched her move forward to the stables' doors and then listen briefly before she rushed back to Rapunzel. In a much lower voice, she explained, "Gunther's men are watching for thieves, I need you to be very,_ very _quiet and follow me." Her accent slightly muddling the words, Rapunzel barely managed to comprehend the gist of what she'd been saying.

"All right," she murmured back, ensuring that all of her hair was up and not going to make any noise.

Checking hastily for anybody, the woman sprinted forward with Rapunzel in suite, and, as quietly as she could, opened a stall door and hurried to its back. On the far wall, there was a little square big enough to fit a person. Beneath the square, a little iron rod laid casually strewn on the hay. Only when the woman knelt down, grasped the iron bar, and raised it up did Rapunzel realize it was not just some rod but a handle to open the square. The square slid up with ease and revealed a tiny opening just big enough to fit one person out into the night. Looking at Rapunzel from over her shoulder, the woman waved her hand forward and Rapunzel followed it, realizing that she wanted Rapunzel to go first. Rapunzel knelt down onto her level and took one look out of the opening before she went to the woman and very softly whispered, "Are you going to follow me?"

With a slight glance down, the woman shook her head. "Not all are so brave."

"But you must, they'll keep hurting you here, they'll –"

"What's done is done." The woman smiled faintly. "Go, goddess." Gulping Rapunzel stared at her before frowning and looking out the opened square.

"Thank you." she said at last. "You've saved me."

The woman smiled brightly, "I've saved someone. That's enough. Now, go. You'll lose your freedom if you don't."

Nodding, Rapunzel again gave her thanks and short bye before squeezing through the opening. Her hair proved troublesome when she had to wait and pick up all of it, the woman handing her locks that had slipped out of her grasp. "Goodbye," Rapunzel said.

"Goodbye."

And with that, the opening shut, swiftly and soundlessly, abandoning Rapunzel to take in her surroundings. She was standing on the edge of the woods. By the unnatural shape and size of the clearing she was standing in, Rapunzel could tell that the trees had obviously been cleared out to make room for the perverse establishment.

_Where do I go_, she fretfully questioned. In her haste to leave, the woman had forgotten to instruct Rapunzel of a way to escape and, in her haste to escape, Rapunzel had forgot to inquire on it. Her mind reeled with realizations that Gunther's guards were right outside the stables' and that, where she was standing, a person could easily identify her, her long, unveiled hair, giving her away. Panicking, Rapunzel chose the first option that came to mind – run.

Without thought, she darted forward, her golden hair and sunlight shaded skin revealing her as a ray of light in all of her surrounding darkness. Across the tiny field, she could have sworn that she left shimmering trail but when she gazed back, then enclosed by the tall trees and canopies of the woods, it was gone. Beyond that moment, Rapunzel did not spare a glance for the place she'd absconded. Thoughts that the Stabbington Brothers loomed just behind her, terrorized her as she raced aimlessly through the darkness. Sometimes, when she felt that all her breath had escaped her, and there was no energy left for her to run, Rapunzel could almost feel them. Their fingertips would just barely graze her skin, a cold and slimy brush, and she involuntarily run faster, burning through all the energy she had without care.

Rapunzel ran until the sun rose and then some. It didn't take long. When she'd fled from her captors, it had already been sometime near sunlight. But when the sun mounted its glorious and heavenly position in the sky, Rapunzel hated it more than she ever had. Sun baths were a divine thing for her, something she'd adored since she was a child, soothing her of her lonely grievances. Yet the warmth did not now console Rapunzel, the meaning of the earth's light transforming menacingly into her exposure. With the sun in the sky, the Stabbington brothers would have it easier to spot her, should they manage to come near her. That combined with the indisputable knowledge that they now knew, without a doubt, she was gone, petrified her. They would hunt her down like fierce, savage dogs and who knows what would become of her then.

Thinking about it brought a clump to her thought and set it stomach on edge. Any thoughts she'd been having about food – and she had been having some – scurried away at her dread.

_No_, she asserted, a stubborn sort of ferociousness igniting her soul, _I will not become a slave to them again_.

And, through her deep pants and sharp breathes, she openly declared for every spirit, sun, tree, animal, and person to hear, "_Never!_"


	10. Chapter 10

**EXCUSE TIME: I got called in on a night shift last night for some money that I desperately need so I was out until 2 am, waitressing my ass off at my mom's business. I did not wake up until 5 today so that is why I didn't post a day after! I'm so sorry, my loves!**

**DEDICATION TIME: I. FRIGGIN'. LOVE. YOUR. REVIEWS. Seriously, I just want you to know that I read every single one and adore/appreciate them, and while none are insignificant, and all are very widely recognized, I want to dedicate this to JayLaw and ApplePieLand or whatever your name is because I'm so tired and lazy that I don't want to check it. YOU GUYS ROCK. Omigosh, there are so many more consistent reviewers that I am going to dedicate other chapters to but yeah, looking back on yours just kind of made/makes my day!**

**Anyways, please review, readers! I would really like it if everyone reviewed because I can't write without them – really. All right, I love you guys. I really think you're amazing and I hope this is an okay chapter, at least. (Six pages again. It's not a lot but I'm just saying. It's a lot.)**

**UPLOAD DATE: January 20, 2013**

Teasing the horizon, the sun began to break through the thick darkness of the night sky. Eugene watched as the stars vanished, one by one, from his view, sent back to their place in heaven from overlooking the earth. In truth, he believed that the twinkling things were angels who watched over mortals and their affairs, reporting back to God the calamities of mankind, only descending when permitted by the Creator. But did they also mean to protect and guard those who deserved it? People like Rapunzel whose souls were purer than an infant who just entered the world. Eugene hoped so.

All night, Eugene's mind had been preoccupied by thoughts of Rapunzel. She was like a siren who called to him his every desire, threatening his demise in not having her. Every step he made towards finding her it seemed as though she pulled back, moving another step away. It was taunting to think that she was just beyond his reach and offering everything a man could require in life.

Turning away from the sky – a position Eugene had been in so long that a kink had formed in his neck – Eugene's eyes rested on the girl who'd informed him of Rapunzel. She was obviously fragile. When he'd finally comprehended that she spoke of Rapunzel, he burst out involuntarily with a storm of questions to which she responded by cringing, screaming out, and crying as if she'd expected him to hurt her as the Stabbington Brothers had. To him, the thought of destroying the innocence of one woman in such a way was inconceivable – now – but he could recognize, with great empathy, how an experience as such could permanently alter one's perspective. Whoever she'd been before, he would never get to see again. Her trust, he'd gathered, had evaporated with the incident. Even in her slumber, she was positioned in a defensive manner with her arms and legs curled into her chest and her body facing him as if he was someone to be wary of. _The Stabbington Brothers can to do that_, he thought bitterly. And suddenly a wave crashed down on him, which brought to surface the question of how Rapunzel slept.

Did she sleep so cautiously? Or did she rest calmly and defenselessly as if she had nothing to fear? Or did she sleep at all?

He could picture her almost humorously awake and on guard against them with her face set toughly and a frying pan wielded in her hands. And, although he was terribly sick over her situation and hateful and bitter towards the brothers even more so because of it, Eugene couldn't help but laugh lightly. The sound eased from his lips nearly sorrowfully, awakening how much he missed her. It was more than reason. There was no logical way to describe it other than a severe – nearly fatal – pain somewhere deep inside his body. Almost like his soul felt it more than him. However, it could was tinged with something undesirable, a feeling which had shadowed him since the day she'd been taken – guilt. Irrefutably, she'd been taken because of him. His selfish and self-serving lifestyle had linked them together without her consent, and now she was suffering the treatments of the brothers because of him.

If it meant that Rapunzel could be free and living her life, untainted by the horrors in this world, Eugene would have it that their paths never crossed. He would live in the eternal misery of knowing who she was, where she was, and what had transpired between them and never so much as visit the woods near her tower. Not to say it would be easy, but, for her longevity and contentment, Eugene would feel a sense of wholeness that he was able to accomplish that much.

Forcefully driving his thoughts away from her and what could have happened and the unattainable fantasy that appealed to him much more than their situation, Eugene settled himself with the bleakness of his life at the moment. Rapunzel, the woman who'd saved him and in less than three days, delivered him an entirely new view of life, was gone by the very men who'd drove Eugene down the dark path he'd been on in the first place. She was somewhere near and yet so far that finding her was just scarcely possible.

Again his gaze fixed itself on the girl. She was the one who'd helped him in getting as far as he was now. For her assurance, he was grateful and as a mean of saying thank you, he would give her clothes, breakfast and send her on her way.

"Theodora," he murmured, careful not to wake her. The name suited her well, something ringing on the edge of it like a destined bell. The twinkle and ancient beauty of it seemed designed for her as he regarded her undeniable loveliness. Although no one could compare to Rapunzel's looks of divinity, this woman stood a fair chance at garnering any man's affections. Why the Stabbington Brothers chose her was no mystery.

Sunlight and flames flickering over her face, the woman's eyes twitched and Eugene immediately glanced away. A fine impression could not be made if she woke the first night he'd met her with him staring intently at her face. Waiting patiently for several moments for Theodora to rouse, Eugene chanced a glimpse at her. Completely undisturbed, the woman remained soundlessly asleep, looking more relaxed than he'd ever seen her, even with her face pinched up affrightedly.

Eugene, catching sight of the sun making a full appearance into the morning sky, decided he would go and fetch them breakfast. The sooner he could get rid of her, the better. Rapunzel needed him and he would not consent to paying off a debt holding any precedence over saving the woman he loved. Silently standing, Eugene left his bag rested against the tree to inform the woman, should she wake, that he would be back soon and that it wouldn't be wise to make off with his things. Although she was currently fragile and vulnerable, Theodora had not yet earned Eugene's trust and he had items in the bag that he needed to survive his journey.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Eugene had taken any risk at all because when he returned, game in hand, she was still asleep, curled in that interminable sleeping position. The fire had gone out while he was scavenging for food and so, to cook his raccoon, Eugene set out on another tiny quest for fire. This time, he lingered closer to their camp than before, always keeping her in his peripheral vision at least. Theodora was bound to wake eventually and as time went on, the likelihood increased.

Oddly though, she remained asleep even after he returned with his materials for the fire, created the fire, and began roasting the meat on the fire (which could not be done until he completed the undesirable job of skinning the dead animal and removing its organs).

Eugene had been watching the flames when she started from her sleep, flinching back and away from the fire onto her back. Her eyes shot around wildly and she panted heavily for several moments before she finally regained a sense of composure and remembrance of where she was. Straightening his posture, Eugene hesitantly tried to comfort her, "It's all right. I'm just making some breakfast."

Large green eyes flickering over to him, Theodora and Eugene exchanged a long glance before he tore his eyes away, unable to bear the resemblance of her gaze to Rapunzel's. Like his lost love, her eyes were innocent and large, the jade green irises flecked with a soft darkness that was only enhanced by her emotions. Upon first meeting Rapunzel, Eugene remembered seeing a nearly hidden defeat, like she was desperately seeking escape but found herself impeded at every way. Seeing this in Theodora tore a hole through him. It only hardened his impatience to be rid of her.

"For…us?" her voice peaked up timidly.

Incapable of resisting the urge to submit a small smile, Eugene faintly sighed, "Yes. For us."

Sensing the awkwardness of their current situation, Eugene and Theodora both sought to distract themselves, Eugene, through cooking, and Theodora, through sitting herself up and adjusting her loose fitting clothing.

When the silence persisted and Theodora was at a loss for things to do, she tentatively questioned the meal. Avoiding eye contact with her, Eugene answered, "Raccoon and berries. I mean, I know it's not everything a girl could hope for but it's all I could find."

"No," she muttered. "Thank you. Anything that's crossed my mind recently as edible was probably worse."

Courteously smiling, Eugene said, "You're welcome" and the silence once more became alive. When the food finished cooking, turning a light and tolerable brown shade, he hurriedly served her her half of the meal, not neglecting to hand over a sizeable portion of berries to hold her over until she could find food of her own. To say Eugene was impatient to finish the meal was an understatement because although he had been well fed for the past few days, he scarfed down a considerable portion of the raccoon before the starving girl did.

They avoided each other's gazes for the entire time, suffocated by the uncomfortable air that surrounded them. When she finished her meal, Eugene was overjoyed that he would soon be rid of it, standing quickly and stomping out the fire. In coordination to Eugene, Theodora stood as well and just stared at him until he finally spoke.

"I suppose you can keep those clothes. I have another pair and I am assuming that wherever, or whomever, you may be headed off to, will be able to provide you with money and appropriate female attire when necessary. The nearest town is Ash-Mont, a day and a half's journey south. If you wake with the sun and then do not rest until the sun has set, you might get there sooner but anything otherwise will lengthen the time." By the expression on her face, Eugene could tell that she was just barely grasping the information but, in spite of the more noble approach to life he was going to take, he couldn't waste time making sure she would retain the directions he'd given her.

"Um…"

Clumsily, Theodora said "thank you" just as Eugene said "I guess this is goodbye" which caused an embarrassed stare to pass between the two of them.

As silence rose up again, Theodora gnawed on her lip, looking torn for some odd reason. Patiently – or as patiently as Eugene could be – Eugene waited for her to get out whatever was clearly tormenting the poor thing. In his pocket, he could clearly feel Pascal shifting impatiently, just as hasty to leave as Eugene was but Eugene was going to stay put until she got a word out.

He had to admit that it took a while, either because the time appeared longer with his need to leave or the irritating clawing against his thigh administered by the bothersome chameleon, but eventually the question escaped her. Although it didn't seem like the relief he'd expect in hearing her saying what was tearing her.

"Is south that way?" Theodora jerked her head behind her, eyes shifting rapidly between his face and the floor.

Narrowing his eyes at her, Eugene slowly answered, "Yeah…," watching her cautiously as she hesitantly gave her thanks and then departed in the direction she'd questioned. Right after she was out of sight, disappearing into the cluster of trees, Pascal scurried out of the spot he'd been hiding in since last night and onto Eugene's shoulder, clucking like deranged chicken. "Yeah, yeah," he responded, eyes still suspiciously trained on the trail she had moments earlier left on, "I know. That was weird."

Pascal matched his gaze for an instant before they both took their last glance in the direction the strange girl was last seen in and then departed on a journey of their own.

RAPUNZEL

The hunt was on. Rapunzel could feel it like an unshakeable demon, clinging to her being as she sped through the woods. Animals and plants materialized and vanished in an overwhelming blur around her. It was like they all screamed and taunted her, clutching at her with their branches and vines or alerting the Brothers of her presence with their voices.

Her body begged and pleaded for rest, her malnourished and underdeveloped muscles neither fit nor accustomed to such arduous and continual exercise. Within the confines of her tower, there was no possibility or need to run so fast or for so long. Out here in this world she'd been a month earlier dying to visit, the land was endless, seeming to continue without ever meeting an ocean or the mythical sea she'd read of so many times. But she could not stop if she wanted to. Involuntarily her body drove forward, determined to endure all obstacles that came her way until it could find its home. Where this will had emerged from, Rapunzel could not know though she supposed it had always been there, merely veiled by the immense exhaustion and fatigue that, as of late, often took hold of her stressed self. Conjured mysteriously by her insanity, Rapunzel could believe that it was presenting itself finally in the perfect moment – the moment she would escape.

Keeping an eye out for something familiar, Rapunzel's eyes began to betray her. Black shapes whirled and danced around her and she was forced to stop lest she fall from the vertigo that was overcoming her senses. With a moan, she hit the floor feeling her body convulse and a pain strike up in her.

"No," she moaned as the figures swirled over her, looming like angels of death waiting to capture another helpless soul. "No!" She felt so near death and yet so near escape. Her only reason for living was so that she could return home to forever stay with Mother Gothel and her mother's favorite hazelnut soup. "Please," she again whimpered, arms raising the few inches they could above her to disperse the evil, chortling spirits. "Spare me," her voice trailed, "spare me…"

If she'd fainted or simply vanished momentarily into the after-world was something that would stay a mystery to Rapunzel. All she could be sure of was the thankfulness she felt at still being alive when her weak eyes opened to greet a setting sun and the familiar scene of trees with no Brothers or maleficent spirits around. Sluggishly she raised herself up onto her elbows, careful not increase the dreadfully present headache that blocked her thoughts and dulled her senses.

Groaning, she clenched her eyes shut against the rushing sound in her ears. It resembled the blood that pounded so intensely through her veins except this noise held a consistency that did not lessen or vanish when most of her thoughts came together. Curiously, she searched for the source of the noise, wary of moving her thousand pound head too swiftly. Eventually, when she pinpointed its location, Rapunzel hoisted herself up onto her feet, arms out to balance her, and followed the soft whooshing sound. Through a thick collection of plant life, not excluding thorns that scratched at her skin, she found the noise and nearly fell down at the great rush of excitement that electrified her being.

Overjoyed at the stream before her, Rapunzel's arms hurried to collect her hair, her feet darting to the water source before she was finished with all of it. "Thank you, Lord," she cried, collapsing heavily to her knees at the bank, carelessly allowing her hair to cascade to the ground surrounding her like a golden ring. Dipping her hands into the clear and sparkling water, she spent little time relishing the pure feeling before she scooped up some of the liquid and poured it between her chapped lips, much in need of the refreshment. The cool and invigorating liquid felt more like a healing solution than anything else as the many broken parts in her suddenly began to feel restored and alive, awakening from whatever comatose state they'd formerly been in. "Thank you, God, thank you!" she mumbled out again and again in between the large handfuls of water she eagerly swallowed.

How long had it been since she had had this much to drink? And without restraint? The gratitude she felt for that moment would be something she would never forget.

Eyes catching on the nearly gone sun, Rapunzel suddenly grasped how much time had passed when she'd blacked out. Adding that onto the time she spent at the spring, doing nothing but indulging in the most precious commodity on earth, Rapunzel was in trouble. With the way the Stabbington Brothers moved, especially when resolute on their objective and retrieving it, they could have caught up with her already. Although the size of the woods was large enough to aid Rapunzel slightly, she didn't think they hadn't already covered the majority of it by now. Besides, there were two of them and one of her. Realistically she was compelled to recognize that the odds were in their favor.

Quickly jumping to her feet to make a run for it, Rapunzel's head throbbed uncontrollably from the sudden movement. She suppressed a groan of pain, understanding that they could be just behind a tree and hear what they can't see. _I have got to keep moving_, she mentally commanded, and as if by magic, her head felt fine again. Set back onto easy moving feet, Rapunzel looped her long and tiresome hair expertly around her arms, neck, shoulders, and sides, grabbing in her hands the ends. The evenly distributed weight would keep her from falling and on that, she took off alongside the stream.

By an estimated guess, Rapunzel assumed that this stream would lead her at least somewhere near a town or – if by some _real _magic – to her tower. Often, towns were built near water sources as a convenience, and she hoped wholeheartedly that this would run off into the middle of _some_ place with royal officials. That way, she could actually get some justice for all those who had been wronged by the Stabbington Brothers. Worst case scenario, they would be hung and oddly enough, the innocence in Rapunzel did not object to the hate that felt no problem with that.

Thinking about it all was like some kind of nearly attainable fantasy to Rapunzel. Somehow in all the crap she had been subjected to since her capture, she had gotten a stroke of luck at the perfect moment! And now she was nearly free and able to capture the Stabbington Brothers themselves. The utter bliss of seeing them enchained and submitted to the same harsh treatment they'd given her in the past week alone would be indescribable. Hopefully _he_ would be next.

A man of that kind was only good for one person – Death.

Noises bubbled up nearby then. At first, they were faint like a soft and imagined murmur caused by paranoia and the wind. But then, they intensified into harsh and angry tones, sending commands in every direction. Rapunzel recognized them almost instantly and reluctantly felt her dream slipping away.

_No! Please, God, have mercy – no!_

"Find that bitch!" she heard one of the Brothers growl, more animal than man. That didn't surprise her.

Before she acknowledged that she was crying, Rapunzel felt her face cringe together as tears of hopelessness fled from her closed eyes. Her feet pounded against the floor, sore from how long she'd run earlier and how hard she was running now. Every now and again, her foot clumsily splashed into the water, and she would open her eyes only for a moment to correct her path. But when she closed them again, heard their voices growing louder and angrier than they were before, she felt herself absentmindedly begin to sprint impossibly faster like she'd been holding out before and decided the situation had become progressively more urgent.

To some, it may seem preposterous to close your eyes. It would slow one down; keep one from moving as fast and as far as possible. But Rapunzel saw it entirely different. To her, it was like avoiding the impossible. If she just closed her eyes, if she could just avoid seeing them, then she was completely okay. They wouldn't take her the way they always had, they wouldn't beat her and sell her off to whatever drunkard they could find for two pence. No, if she just closed her eyes to everything, then everything didn't exist.

But, as she heard Auric Stabbington stomping his way towards her across the stream, she opened her eyes and realized suddenly how wrong she had been.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey! It's been a while, let me tell you why: You have not reviewed. I don't get reviews then I really don't have a lot of motivation. I'm not saying that like 'No reviews, no new updates.' No I literally mean I have inspiration issues. I need reviews so I feel all happy and have a bunch of ideas to write. Otherwise I will force myself to write. Like with some parts of this chapter. **

**UPLOAD DATE: February 24, 2013**

**DEDICATION TIME: .589 and Animal Lover. Love them!**

**BTW, I need to explain something. My dedications are selective and I don't mean to seem like I'm excluding any of you. I just dedicate based on who gave the best reviews in the last chapter. So please don't stop reviewing because you feel like I haven't noticed you. I have noticed and cherished each one of you! Thank you, bye!**

Water splashed against her back and somehow onto her chest, soaking the extraordinarily thin fabric of her dress. Mud was everywhere: on her hair, her clothes, her skin, her face. She was too numb to feel that it was there, but she managed to sense it somehow, the foreign entity on her body.

Her ears rung, high pitched and painful like hearing a thousand cries in both ears at the loudest volume possible. It scrambled her thoughts and the resulting disorientation was intolerable. All that she wanted to do was escape from it but every direction her head moved in only sent another powerful wave of vertigo. Rapunzel, despite the immense obstacles that barred her path to escape, still fought to get away. But when she so much as tried to roll over, she found that the colossal weight of Auric Stabbington proved a great deal too much.

A choke hissed through her lips then, like the dying breath of an old man. She couldn't breathe. It took her a second to realize that when he'd knocked her to the ground, skillfully using the momentum of his racing body to tackle her onto the stream, he'd knocked the wind out of her. But even so, her body's instinct to draw in a deep breath was met with the inability to inhale.

From then on, everything moved too quickly. Rapunzel felt her chest tightening and the skin of her face flushing with heat. The feelings bombarded her, piling on into a mess of discomfort, the unnatural feeling burning torturous holes through her flesh. Panic gripped her as she realized that Auric wasn't getting off or saving her from the pain. On the contrary, his face appeared deviously pleased by the distressed expression she was making and when she recognized that look on his face of wanting to savor every last moment, she could tell he would lay on her until she asphyxiated to death.

Arising to take control at Rapunzel's desperate and unexpected beseeches, an inner beast Rapunzel had never acknowledged or been aware of stormed forth into power with a wrath borne of hell. Reflexively, her numb hands transformed into claws, scratching and digging into Auric as if her subconscious had reverted her back to a primitive stage where a doe's only escape from a lion was to flail wildly beneath its claws_. Let me breathe_, she mentally screamed and could almost feel the burn in her throat as if she had in fact hollered it. Loud, inhuman noises erupted from her as she fought for her life. There was no way he was going to let it get so far, she had thought. But as the blackness blurred up around the edges of her vision and she no longer felt the need to breathe but a numb, almost hollow feeling pull at her chest, she was filled with resentment. Beyond that point, she'd not be able to heal herself. There would be no savior to come or him to rush forth, screaming her name. Only a greedy and selfish man would be there to choke her with his weight and the unwelcomed sorrow of an enslaved death.

_How funny_, she thought at last_. I got what I had wished for: death_.

As she felt herself drifting away, not unlike the feeling of her soul the previous night when it offered her an external view of her shell, a relieved feeling enveloped her. It was like drawing in a last breath – the ultimate reprieve from an otherwise entirely tragic situation. Consciousness slipped from her along with the ability to think after that moment.

Her soul only allowed her a view of heaven in brief, fleeting flashes with white skies and brilliant thunderstorms, ivory castles, and rivers of red and gold. The most beautiful man she had ever cast her eyes on crossed her, and for a moment – with his gleaming golden hair and glorious, nearly divine composure – she truly believed that he was God. But when he smiled with that smile, a smile that looked like a keen-edged knife, and said to her what he said, she just knew she had met Lucifer, the Morningstar and just like that she was ripped through the darkness. Only his words of "Soon, Rampion" lingered in her mind when she found herself, once again, plummeting into Hell.

Expecting certain things of heaven, beyond that mentioned in the Bible or scripture, was considered highly impious to some (including Rapunzel's mother). Yet, Rapunzel had freely dreamt of her version of eternal paradise in her last few days of life with the Stabbington Brothers. It was a land of mystery and magic where she was not only an adored princess, born with a prodigious and inconceivable fortune, but also a skilled warrior whose love would be found only in the battlefield, not among the cowardly intellects of court. Her last surviving string of consciousness had somewhat assumed that that land would be waiting for her, the plush coverings of her royal bed swaddled around her like an infant's blanket and the warm sunshine shining against her face, waking her to realize that all she'd endured in her true life was merely a dream and she was now again in her real one.

Freezing cold water carried her away from that exquisite world and transported her, against the will of her body and soul, back to Earth and its cruel tendencies. Instead of waking to the relief of all those sufferings being the lie, Rapunzel woke to all those beauties being the true fraud and felt crushed beneath the weight of reality. She would have cried but she found that no tears came in spite of her voluble bawls.

"Shut up!" One of the brothers hollered, raising their hand and sharply slamming the back of it against one of her cheeks. Rapunzel yelped loudly at the unforeseen pain in her shoulders and arms, shocked not only by the blow but because she was not knocked to the floor at the force of it. Soon enough the reason became apparent. At last her blurred eyes focused enough to register the leather constraints tightly wound around her wrists, suspending her painfully above the ground.

"What?" Rapunzel yanked her arm, dazedly standing on her limp feet. "No!" Again she wrenched her hand away from the bond but found that there was no room for her to move either left or right. "No!" Against her will, the leather held her there, raised high enough that she was would only be able to remain on her feet and stretched tight enough around her wrists and two nearby trees that there was no room left for movement.

Lyle, cloaked in his usual dark garb, stormed to her, roughly gripping her face between the fingers of his hand and bringing her face to face his. "You fucking bitch," he snarled through clenched teeth, his eyes ignited with an unfathomable amount of rage. "Did I not tell you I would find you? Did I not," – he dug his nails into her skin, into the areas closest to bone where it hurt the most – "command you to listen?"

Rapunzel challenged his gaze, not once moving away from his eyes or showing anything less than the pure, unyielding abhorrence she felt for him then. When she did not buckle, Lyle chuckled darkly.

"Auric!"

Rushing up from wherever he'd been behind her, Auric yanked her head away out of Lyle's grip by her hair. The rapid movements tore gashes in her face from where his nails had been. She ignored the tears burning in her eyes.

"Bring it in," Lyle shouted, eyes not once wavering from the intense, dominance-fighting glare they were exchanging. Rapunzel clamped her jaw shut, swearing on her soul that she would rather die and suffer a thousand years in hell than allow them to capture her in a moment of weakness. Her fixed resolve, however, faltered unpredictably upon catching sight of the girl who'd helped her escape that morning. Upon glimpsing that, Lyle grinned maniacally.

Two men ushered the girl in by her arms, half dragging, half-guiding her to the tree several feet in front of Rapunzel, binding her to it and allowing her to keel forward weakly. Her dark brown hair look nearly black as the blood soaked it through and made it cling to her head and face, partially covering the obscene looking bruises that were beginning to spring up on her cheeks and around her eyes. Apparently they'd stripped her of her clothes and, although she'd never been very modest about her nude form, she now shivered feverishly, cringing and raising a leg to try and conceal the numerous and large bruises that visibly littered her tan skin. To keep from crying out for her, Rapunzel bit her lip harshly and looked away, not daring to recognize that she had been the cause of this. Unfortunately though, the Brothers were not so merciful and Auric wrenched Rapunzel's head upright again, forcing her to face what she had done.

"See her?" Lyle shouted so loud that Rapunzel could see the muscles strain in his neck. "Look at her!" Insolently, Rapunzel cast her eyes skyward. "Look at her," Lyle again roared, this time capturing her face as he had earlier. "This," he shook her head brutally for emphasis, "is what you did. This," his voice dropped low and became demonically cruel, "is your fault! You are the reason she is going to die tonight."

Rapunzel gasped, shocked despite her intuition's prior warning.

"Yes," he chuckled heartlessly. "Yes. We are going to _fuck_ her tonight, we are going to _beat_ her tonight, and you can bet that we will _burn her in your honor_. And when she condemns you and screams to God that your soul be forever damned to Hell, know that that will never happen, because your soul belongs to _me_!" For the purpose of emphasis, Lyle swiftly delivered a truculent blow to her abdomen, Rapunzel involuntarily doubling over into a fit of agonizing and ceaseless coughs.

"You're the Devil," Rapunzel growled as he began to turn away.

Lyle stopped in his tracks and rotated to confront her slowly. The same terror she'd been forced to live with since her capture emerged again and without thought, Rapunzel recoiled as he resumed his former position afore her.

"No," he laughed, kneeling down to her level, whispering in a hushed tone like a father to a daughter. "No, no, no. I'm just his father." Although her eyes were not connected with Lyle's, she could sense that his drew over her skin lecherously. The water she'd been doused with had made her dress transparent and all of her body was exposed to the people there.

Thankfully, Lyle abandoned his lewd gaze and instead turned his attention to the cluster of men who stood in a circle around the spectacle, all holding bright torches to shun the night.

"Gunther!"

The elderly man appeared from the crowd, sporting a face of indifference.

"Here is your pay." A hefty sized bag was dropped into Gunther's hand. The weight was so immense that the man's hand lowered slightly when it landed in his palm. Lyle's head turned slightly over his shoulder so that Rapunzel could hear his words and see the devilish smirk on his lips. "Now we own the girl, do we not?" Gunther gave a distracted nod; too busy counting the coins.

Vainly, Rapunzel attempted to ignore the girl. Even as Auric jerked her head around so that she was constantly aware of the woman before her, Rapunzel tried to look away. But the woman across from her sobbed so loud that she could mistake it for nothing else but the regret of saving Rapunzel. Her conscience used it as a weapon against her, an interminable attack no different from the thug's forceful sword or Auric's cruel hands.

"Might want to watch," Auric whispered into Rapunzel's ear. "This is for you." She gagged with revulsion as his hot breath blew against her skin. Auric's lips were just beneath her ear.

A scream caught her attention. That was the very first thing. It was a scream that pierced the air and commanded for Rapunzel to watch, to atone for the guilt she felt at causing such pain.

Angled towards the sky, the girl's head was half illuminated by the many torches in a fiery red light, the other half just barely visible by the silver moon. The awkward incline was not of her choice – Lyle's large hand was locked firmly around her petite neck, forcing her to remain upright and visible to all present. There a blackness cast over her body by Lyle's shadow that did nothing but make her look more and more like an angel tortured by the demons on earth, her rich skin glowing even in the darkness. Mercy in the form of hiding her vulnerable body was not given, the knife jammed up into the tight-muscled area of her stomach clearly evident, blood not waiting for the knife's extraction to escape.

"NO!" Rapunzel wailed, watching the poor woman writhe in agony. "STOP! NO!" All the men paid her no heed; they were all distracted by the 'entertaining' performance before them on how to pluck the wings off a butterfly.

When Lyle yanked the dagger out of her, the woman's eyes screwed themselves shut and she just barely verbalized a cry before she tensed and gave into an overwhelming weep. Hand now off her throat, her head dropped and she buried her face in her shoulder, obscuring as much of her face as she could. With the bloodied dagger, Lyle began to tease the woman's skin. He drew the blade up and down across her arms and legs, not excluding her more intimate regions before finally succumbing to another pitiless thrust into the other side of her stomach. He continued to do this again and again until finally enough blood had been bled from her that her stomach's skin was no longer visible, blanketed by the miserably scarlet shade of her blood.

By then, Rapunzel was left with no words to speak. Every time he hurt her, the expression of the woman robbed Rapunzel of speech. No words could counter that suffering; no words could console such despair. Nothing waited for the poor servant woman but death. By the grotesque amount of blood in sight, that point was made clear.

Suddenly the woman raised her eyes to Rapunzel's. For a moment, there was a link there, the silent conveyance of words that Rapunzel could not bear to hear, but as her head reluctantly sank, her neck too weak to hold up the weight of her skull, the connection broke. She didn't blame Rapunzel, but rather pitied her. This woe stood at the end of Rapunzel's life's path. God's intentions wandered no farther than what laid before her eyes. In her proximity to death, the woman caught glimpses of His plan and all of heaven reaching down to save her from the unfortunate situation. Doubtlessly, she knew the future misery of this girl Rapunzel.

It was sacrilegious to transpire such thoughts but was it anything beyond honesty? Fear which controlled the direction of Rapunzel's beliefs began to affirm that it wasn't.

"Take her down," Lyle ordered. By the gleaming ferocity in his dark eyes, no man hesitated to obey him. When he directed his gaze at Rapunzel, she perceived nothing save insanity there – the brute command of a rabies infected alpha wolf who sought nothing but to crave death, war, and blood. A man split through the ropes in one quick swipe of his blade, and the woman collapsed weakly to the floor, her drained face barely able to make out the expression of pain anymore.

"_WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU_?" Rapunzel roared at the crowd.

Blatantly ignoring Rapunzel, Lyle circled the woman, chest puffed out and heaving with every deep and rugged breath he took. She could see the predator in him, circling his prey. All his omegas regarded him in some sort of godly way, nearly hypnotized with how ferocious and powerful he'd become through the most cowardly of means. Pathetic could not describe the way Rapunzel considered Auric and Lyle then. That word implied too much bravery.

Scarcely clinging to her life, the woman on the floor softly yelped when Lyle seized her upper arm and dragged her over – again – to the tree. Like the way one handles a doll, Lyle propped her exposed body up against the trunk and then proceeded to unsheathe his 'sword' before all present, shamelessly plunging it into her again and again until Rapunzel could tolerate no more and emptied the nonexistent contents of her stomach. If she could have averted her gaze or shut her ears to the noises all around her – from the crackle of the fire to Lyle's sordid groans – Rapunzel might have evaded real devastation but Auric's unyielding grasp imprisoned her in the one pure room of her mind, watching helplessly as it crumbled and fell apart. What she perceived only became visible when the walls fell, and they collapsed into a mess of rubble and debris around her, leaving Rapunzel distraught and soiled.

Lyle withdrew after several minutes of the vulgar act, and when he did so Rapunzel wholeheartedly feared that someone else would act in his stead to replicate the performance to their best. However – even from where Rapunzel was bound – the woman already resembled a corpse and having a dead woman burn would hardly go along with Lyle's plan.

"Auric." Lyle's grimace directed itself towards Rapunzel and the Brother behind her, "Take her."

Auric obeyed Lyle's command bitterly, liberating Rapunzel of her physical constraints and then jerking her around with a highly displeased expression on his face that hinted at his inability to 'obey' others. If he didn't like that, Rapunzel could only fantasize about him in her current shoes.

"Come on," Auric barked as he lugged Rapunzel around the building. The task was nearly impossible to do with ease as Rapunzel kept crumbling into tears, collapsing to the floor with her sobs. Over the preceding week she had become too weak – because of their persistence in feeding her the morsels of their meals – to properly stand which abandoned Auric with no option but to drag her along the ground, coating her in mud and sullying her damp frock. "Stand up!" Too enrapt in her sorrow, Rapunzel did not hear. "Stand up!" Auric hauled her up to her feet only to have her sink again to the floor. "Daft whore," he hissed, winding his hand in her hair and then righting her against the wooden stake that had been constructed for events like tonight's.

Seething with fury, Auric seized Rapunzel's arms and then proceeded to secure them behind the pole, one by one. Although he was maddened by the thought that Rapunzel presumed to have any degree of power over Auric and his brother, the fire-haired man grinned impishly, lips nearly pulled from ear to ear. The mere reason that stake had been constructed brought him glee. Tonight, when Rapunzel discovered its purpose as many women and men had afore her, she would feel the heartless hand of his vengeance.

Keeled over, Rapunzel's weeps could compare to none she had wept prior. They consumed her with their sorrow and intensity in such a way that Rapunzel was hardly aware of the rope as it bit into her wrists or the splintered wood as it dug into her forearms. Even when they heaved the near-corpse of the woman's body into the clearing as one would heave a weighty commodity, Rapunzel sustained her unintentional ignorance to her surroundings. Only the opaque and lifeless woods of her dreams surrounded her. The breezeless forest, vacant of any comfort or emotional prospect, loomed over her, inflicting guilt upon her like poison-tipped blades. Each time a new pain shot through her, Rapunzel was confident the end was near but each time she was disillusioned. There was no foreseeable deliverance for her.

"We are here today to burn a traitor to our kind!" Lyle hollered mightily, efficiently grasping the attention of all encompassing. "She has released my slave and now – SHE WILL PAY OFF THE DEBT SHE OWES!" Cheering captured the dejected Rapunzel's attention. "We have seen countless burn on this stake, but tonight? We have all had a contributed to justice!" Raising their torches, all men hailed Lyle in a unanimous roar. The collective present all praised themselves heroes for taking part in a fucking, a beating, and witnessing a murder. But Rapunzel saw spineless cowards. None here deserved God's good grace, and if God dispensed his blessings to all men then Rapunzel would be forced to deem these men monsters for none could rightfully deserve any fortune in his life.

Suddenly Rapunzel's head was jerked violently back, painfully smashing into the wooden stake at her back. "Ow," she moaned, tears again blurring her vision. A hand in her hair corrected her line of sight, allowing her the pleasure of facing Auric's one eye.

"You listening, Blondie?"

Unable to contain her disgust, Rapunzel struck out at Auric, viciously attempting to inflict visible pain by the use of her teeth. However, when she failed, Auric put a hand to her throat and restrained her with no object save physical force which seemed plainly pathetic that that was most extreme measure that he could resort to. For all the pain she had witnessed that night on her account, Rapunzel only equitably felt as though some of it should be hers. Rescuing Rapunzel should not result in such wretchedness. Now all that had hope for her would burn half-alive.

Apparently Lyle had been talking whilst Auric and she had an interlude because the cluster of men now jested and hurrahed with their torches as Lyle laid the first flames to blaze. They quickly ignited in the hay that encircled the poor girl's form but eased slowly to her, torturously licking closer and closer till they brushed her skin. Then was when you could see the pain. Rapunzel had assumed that by all the blood loss she'd at least have slipped unconscious, but to Rapunzel's dismay, she was merely too drained to properly erect herself.

Her face contorted atrociously and then horrendous shrieks and screeches, obvious direct results from the pain, exploded from within her. It lasted this way – with that macabre sound solely haunting the air – for a while until the smoke choked out her lungs and only the crackle of the flames was existent. From Rapunzel's position, the pain was palpable and evident. Right in front of her, through sheets of smoke, her savior's tan flesh was charred from her skin. Soon enough, she was only a woman of fire and then she was crumbled away as muscle and bone all became ash, disintegrating into the pile.

It was indescribable.

When morning came, the flames at last began to die. Everyone had remained, shifting uncomfortably but nonetheless waiting until the "show" concluded to a proper end where the outcome was revealed and all curiosity was satiated. For that period, Rapunzel stared with a blank face through the pyre. Auric had released her long ago when his hand tired and interest waned. (With Rapunzel's scarce reaction, he was not as entertained as he supposed he'd be.) And ever since then, she'd been unable to turn away.

What exactly had garnered her interest in the death of a savior and, perhaps, a friend, there could be no answer. But as the flames scorched away her hope and blackened the remains, the sun rising on the horizon, and the birds caroling their morning melodies, Rapunzel suffered an immense internal transformation. Something inside her had snapped – shattered into irreparable pieces.

As she stared at the embers of a once raging fire, Rapunzel's heart stopped beating at the end of three hard thuds.

She would never be the same again.


	12. PLEASE READ

Unforuntately this update is coming from my phone.

PLEASE READ.

To my utter dismay, my computer has not only crashed but has deleted every story I've worked on - poured my heart into - since the sixth grade. Not to mention my editing projects, my pictures, my videos, and every non tanglible memory of my 3years deceased father. I am, and have been for the past week (ironically my spring break), in sniveling tears and dealing with intense internal pandemonium.

Blessings to Curses, as well as my most recent work, Number 1,Number 2 are therefore on hold as of this moment. Should my computer magically recuperate because I fortunately meet the messaih of PC's, then you all may expect an update. And then an a update. And then straight up schmooze. But., on the other hand - the dark, gut-wrenching, thorned hand -, then an update by April 15th should be my next best guarantee.

I am heartbroken that it's come to this and that, somehow, my rainy day has turned into the utmost worst apocalyptic 2012 John Cusack storm I've ever seen. Or must survive through.

Yes, I'm using pathos to get your sympathy but everything I have said here is entirely true. Please, just bare with me and refrain from criticizing me any more than necessary. I will NEVER forget about this story and hopefully this will assuage you, my readers, had/have about abandonment.

-M


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